Bellator 185 Draws 476K Viewers

Former UFC Middleweight standout Gegard Mousasi, had a long Friday night as he struggled both in the cage, and as a ratings draw, in his Bellator debut at Bellator.

The show which emanated from Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Ct., featured 476,000 first run viewers on Friday night, and a DVR viewership of  47,000 viewers over the next three days, for a 523,000 total.

The number did not meet the 660,000 average which was the norm so far in 2017. The number is consistent with recent shows that didn’t feature a big-name coming from UFC, but also could have been lower due to Game 6 of the American League Championship Series between Houston and the Yankees (Two of the top ten media markets) which drew 8,225,000 viewers.

Bellator’s October 6th event headlined by Darrion Caldwell’s bantamweight title win over Eduardo Dantas did 437,000 viewers, and the September 23rd San Jose event headlined by Benson Henderson vs. Patricky “Pitbull” Freire and also featuring Roy Nelson, Lorenz Larkin and Paul Daley, did 598,000 viewers.

Including DVR viewership through Monday night, the peak number was during the Mousasi vs. Alexander Shlemenko main event, at 792,000 viewers.

Mousasi won the fight over Shlemenko on straight 29-28 scores, but the decision was booed in the building and media scores were more in favor of Shlemenko, but it was a fight that could have gone 29-28 in either direction.

Mousasi signed a six-fight deal with Bellator in July after UFC did not match their offer. Mousasi was on a five fight win streal in the UFC, including stoppages of former champions Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort, both in the second round.