TUF 9 Finale Peaks With 2.8 Million Viewers For Sanchez-Guida
PRESS RELEASE — This past Saturday, June 20, the UFC was once again the undisputed champion in sports on television among young men. The live finale of the ninth season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” airing Saturday June 20 (9:00pm-12:00am), drew more men in the advertiser-coveted demographic of Men 18-34 (663,000) than MLB baseball on FOX (184,000) and coverage of U.S. Open golf on NBC (384,000) which ran earlier that day.
The live UFC fight card, which peaked at 2.8 million viewers for the main event featuring Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida, was the most watched-program in all of television in Men 18-34 and Men 18-49.
Also, bucking the trend of most reality series, “The Ultimate Fighter” finale ratings for season nine were the highest since season six and the full season of 13 episodes were the highest in Men 18-34 since season five, illustrating the growing popularity in the sport of mixed martial arts and the UFC brand on Spike.
Overall, the “The Ultimate Fighter: US vs. Team UK” delivered a 1.5 household rating, a 2.1 in Men 18-49 (1.2 million), a 2.3 in M18-34 (663,000), a 2.8 in M25-34 (468,000) and 2.2 million total viewers.
Many had hyped Guida vs. Sanchez as a possible “Fight of the Year” candidate, and the two warriors more than lived up to the hype in a three round war that left the sold out crowd at The Palms Casino Resort clamoring for more, as Sanchez won via split decision in a fifteen minute instant UFC classic. The fight drew an impressive 3.1 rating in Men 18-34 and 3.3 in Men 25-34.
The card also featured the welterweight and lightweight finals from “The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom,” and colonial rule reigned supreme, as British competitors took home the title in both divisions. Team UK’s James Wilks submitted Team US’s DaMarques Johnson in the first round to take home the welterweight crown, and Team UK’s Ross Pearson defeated teammate Andre Winner to become the lightweight division champion.
[Pictured: Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida]
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Numbers like this are why Dana White is believable [at least to me] when he says that MMA can be the worlds biggest sport by 2020…
I think for it to become the worlds biggest sport a few things are going to need to happen.
1.eventually a womens division in the UFC
2.a free show on once a week with relatively unknown fighters.
3.1 free fight night style show every month with fairly popular fighters
4.hopefully a great mix of cultures and nationalities fighting, more so than right now.
5.Although it is stale TUF is great for the UFC in drawing in new fans
6.a video game very year(which is to be expected)
7.a major t.v. deal
8.more mainstream coverage from radio stations and sports networks newspaper ect.
9.Dana Whit doesnt die.
10.no decisions ever again. jk (that was for you and you know who you are)
Excellent points, carls.
Hard to argue with any or all of them, especially number 10…
Diego + Guida = ratings! I would love to see a rematch someday!
ALSO…at work my computer is filtered from posting on the forums…I just wanted to say that I agree with all of the nice things that were said on the “top 5 reasons mmafrenzy is the best mma website on the net” forum.
I would also like an XL t-shirt.
Sweet.
I’m a huge MMA fan, BUT i honeslty don’t think anything can ever even begin to challenge the popularity of Soccer worldwide, their fans are too die hard and passionate and Soccer is just waaaayyyy too huge to be overtaken, here in the USA, it can be believable that MMA can overtake Football, but not anytime soon, Football is also way too popular and a way of life for a great amount of people and worldwide Soccer is all that people care about, Soccer is too big.
As much as I hate to admit it, mk4, your’e probably right about the triangle choke that soccer has on the global sports world, although I do think that MMA could share that stage by crossing borders, boundries, and conventional mindsets about how a sport is promoted and marketed.
This might be a bit of devil’s advocate, as it relates to the world sports scene, but I will say a friend of mine recently traveled to Sao Paolo, Brazil on business and mentioned that he saw as many BJJ, Vale Tudo, and MMA signs and paraphenalia as he did for soccer. I also know that in Thailand that Thai boxing is bigger than soccer, in Japan wrestling and martial arts of all types are bigger than soccer, in Canada hockey is bigger than soccer, in many Latin American countries baseball and boxing are bigger than soccer, and here in the US of course football, and most anything else, is bigger than soccer.
I mention this only to point out that maybe, just maybe, soccer isn’t as untouchable as it once was for the hearts and minds of the planet’s sports fans…
you have a great point,
i feel that soccer fans are more loyal, i hate to say this, but MMA has lots of “fan” who are truly not “real” fans. There are a lot of people out there that just know the big names and don’t really understand and appreciate the sport of MMA. Soccer on the other hand, i would say that 99% of soccer fans would die for their teams and kill for their teams, soccer fans are truly die hard.
MMA fans are also die hard, but we are still growing in numbers in terms of those of us who are truly loyal fans and not just those people who only know Chuck Liddell because ESPN always talks about him.
The sport of MMA is growing and can overtake and problably already has overtaken a lot of sports, but Soccer, like i said before has the more loyal following and their fans are truly insane for their sport.
Although I think it will take a long long time, maybe even longer than 2020. I just realy sea MMA becoming monumentally huge. i look at it like this, were not all born to like kicking a ball or passing a ball or skating on ice or whatever were just not, but if their is one thing that 90% of the world likes, is to see a fight one way or another. Some coutires prefer sumo wrestling, some boxing, but over time espeacially if great fighters can develop from all over the world MMA will be accepted and honored behond our wildest dreams. Its just going to take some time to showcase it to the entire world.
Good number’s forsure… I’m going to re watch the card tonight, people who didn’t see it are asking how good it was… Might as well show them..
Nice. It has become a general rule for me that I keep all UFC events on my DVR and watch them again either Wednesday or Thursday.