Strikeforce Challengers VI peaks with nearly 200,000 viewers for main event
This past weekend's "Strikeforce: Challengers VI: Kaufman vs. Hashi" event, which North American MMA's second major event to be headlined by a female matchup, peaked with 189,000 viewers on Showtime.
MMAjunkie.com today confirmed the ratings figures – which nearly doubled as the event unfolded – with Showtime officials.
Strikeforce Challengers VI took place on Feb. 26 at the San Jose Civic Auditorium in San Jose, Calif.
The two-hour broadcast opened with 111,000 viewers as Yancy Medeiros and Tarec Saffiedine each cruised to unanimous-decision wins.
The viewership grew to 167,000 viewers as Luke Rockhold turned in the most impressive performance on the main card with a first-round stoppage of Paul Bradley.
Finally, Showtime's ratings peaked at 189,000 for the event's accidental-foul-shortened co-feature between Karl Amoussou and Trevor Prangley and the evening's main event, which saw Sarah Kaufman take a one-sided, five-round decision over Takayo Hashi while claiming Strikeforce's first-ever 135-pound title.
Showtime, a premium cable station, boasts about 12 million subscribers and is home to the Strikeforce Challengers series and many of the fight promotion's major shows, which also now air on CBS.
The numbers represent a sharp decrease from the impressive 517,000 viewers that tuned in to the star-studded "Strikeforce: Miami" event in January, but Showtime and Strikeforce officials have made it clear that the prospect-based Challengers events are not expected to claim the same type of ratings as the larger shows.
Ratings for recent Challengers shows were not immediately available for comparison.
Strikeforce returns to Showtime on Mar. 26 for the "Strikeforce: Challengers VII: Johnson vs. Mahe" in Fresno, Calif., which features a heavyweight main event between Lavar "Big" Johnson and Lolohea Mahe, as well as four other interesting matchups including Luke Stewart vs. Andre Galvao and Zoila Frausto vs. Miesha Tate.
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