Saturday’s
UFC on ESPN 21 main card attracted an audience of 721,000
viewers to ESPN, according to
ShowBuzz Daily.
That’s the top figure for a UFC on ESPN card in 20201, surpassing
both UFC on ESPN 20 (244,000 viewers) and UFC on ESPN 19 (658,000
viewers). The event didn’t begin on ESPN until 10:25 p.m. ET due to
the NCAA wrestling championships. As a result, the main card began
on ESPN2 at 10 p.m. ET and averaged 512,000 viewers for the first
portion.
UFC on ESPN 21 took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and saw
Derek
Brunson defeat Kevin
Holland via unanimous decision in the evening’s middleweight
main event. The overall main draw wasn’t large on star power and
also had the disadvantage of going head-to-head with the NCAA
basketball tournament on Saturday night, which dominated ratings
with games on multiple networks.
The UFC on ESPN 21 prelims averaged 438,000 viewers on ESPN2. That
portion of the card featured a women’s bantamweight matchup between
Macy
Chiasson and Marion
Reneau, which Chiasson won via unaimous decision.
Both the main card and prelims were simulcast on ESPN+, but ratings
are not available for the streaming service.