Report: Bellator Ratings Rebound With July 31st Show
By FCF Staff
After Bellator 96 pulled disappointing ratings on June 19th, it looks like the promotion’s star studded card this week rebounded strongly, to approach the numbers Bellator’s Season 8 drew this past spring.
According to a figures relayed by MMA Weekly.com, Bellator 97 Wednesday night drew an average of 679,000 viewers, which is nearly 200,000 than what Bellator 96 had in June.
The broadcast audience peaked at 856,000 viewers, after Tito Ortiz and “Rampage” Jackson appeared to announce they will fight November 2nd.
During Bellator’s first season on SPIKE this spring, the promotion drew an average of around 800,000 viewers per card, which is significantly more than what it had during its run on MTV 2.
Bellator 97 featured lightweight champion Michael Chandler and welterweight champ Ben Askren defending their belts, with stoppage wins over David Rickels and Andrey Koreshkov respectively.
Former Strikeforce champ “King Mo” Lawal won the promotion’s “Summer Series” light-heavyweight tourney by defeating Jacob Noe.
Bellator’s Season 9 of action gets underway on September 7th.