Slice (left) hammering Shamrock (photo via Bellator / Spike)

By FCF Staff

Bellator 138’s headliner between Ken Shamrock and Kevin Ferguson may have had its fair share of critics, but as many expected, the fight delivered big ratings for the promotion.

According to a press release sent out by Spike, Friday’s bout between the two peaked at 2.1 million viewers. That’s the most ever for a Bellator card on Spike, which is the promotion’s broadcasting partner.

Slice stopped Shamrock with a flurry of of punches in the opening round, after working his way out from a rear-naked-choke attempt.

Overall, Bellator 138 drew an average of 1.6 million viewers, and was the most watched show for that time slot with male viewers, aged 18-49 years old.

The previous record for Bellator was last November’s fight between Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar, which peaked at 1.8 million viewers.

(Update: according to a new press release from Spike, the viewership for Bellator 138 peaked at 2.4 million viewers. The Slice-Shamrock bout, which took place from 11:51 PM/ET to 11:54 PM/ET, averaged 2.3 million viewers)