The UFC’s relationship with Fox Sports has been one that has brought them in a steady income, for sure, but there has been a struggle to pull in television ratings on the network. Some have claimed that it was the network itself, others have claimed that it was the UFC’s poor offerings on television, many like to think it’s a little of column A and a little of column B. This past weekend with UFC 175, though, things were looking up. It’s hard not to argue that when the UFC puts on a better quality event that it’ll draw more eyeballs.
The UFC 175 prelims scored 1 million viewers on Fox Sports 1, which can probably be attributed to the event itself that featured Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida and Ronda Rousey vs. Alexis Davis, but also for Bruce Leeroy vs. Urijah Faber being on the UFC 175 prelims. The only higher prelim event on Fox Sports 1 was UFC 168. [source]
For The Ultimate Fighter 19 it was a similar story, with the proper event getting 1 million viewers and the prelims getting 774,000. Those are some solid numbers for the UFC on Fox Sports 1 considering the event especially, but you have to feel that BJ Penn vs. Frankie Edgar was the main draw for this show, not The Ultimate Fighter 19. [source]