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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Wednesday's UFC on Fuel debut scored the highest ratings for a live event on the network, but still came in expectedly well below most UFC programming. According to multiple published reports, an average of 217,000 viewers tuned in for the card headlined by Jake Ellenberger vs. Diego Sanchez, up from the 148,000 and 144,000 averages of the UFC on FX 1 and UFC on Fox 2 prelims.
The card was counter-programmed by Spike TV, which drew an average of 678,000 viewers for replays of The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale and UFC Unleashed with Diego Sanchez fights. Of course, Fuel was only available in a little over 40 million homes, whereas Spike is available in over 90 million.
Wednesday's three-hour broadcast provided plenty of action, with Ellenberger defeating Sanchez in the "Fight of the Night" by decision. Additionally, Stefan Struve stopped Dave Herman in the second round, Ronny Markes defeated Aaron Simpson by decision, Stipe Miocic knocked out Philip de Fries in the first round, T.J. Dillashaw defeated Walel Watson by decision, and Ivan Menjivar submitted John Albert.
Penick's Analysis: Obviously the viewership for the Fuel cards is going to be severely lacking in comparison to what the UFC has done on any other network they've been on, but from Fuel's perspective this is a fantastic number. They are increasing their viewership overall, and the live events are going to bring Fuel numbers they just haven't seen yet. The UFC and Fox are hoping to build Fuel up with this partnership, and it's going to take more time to build it up. For the first dedicated fight card, this is a good number for Fuel.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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