Spike TV officials announced Tuesday that an average of 1.2 million viewers tuned in for Saturday’s UFC 139 “Prelims Live” broadcast, which immediately preceded the UFC pay-per-view offering.
The viewership figure marks a slight increase from the previous “UFC Prelims Live” special, which aired prior to October’s UFC 137 pay-per-view and took in an average of 1.1 million viewers. September’s UFC 136 set the series-low figure of 1 million viewers on Spike, while UFC 126 posted a series-high 2 million viewers in February.
Headlined by a back-and-forth light heavyweight scrap between Dan Henderson and Mauricio Rua, UFC 139 took place Nov. 19 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.
Bantamweight prospect Michael McDonald kicked off the Spike TV broadcast in impressive fashion, blasting Octagon newcomer Alex Soto into unconsciousness after just 56 seconds. Though Soto came out aggressively in the early going, McDonald dropped him with a right hand counter and then swarmed, pinning Soto against the cage and knocking him out with a pair of hard uppercuts.
Ryan Bader took slightly more time to dispatch veteran Jason Brilz, but the result was the same. After clipping his fellow wrestler with a powerful right straight to the temple, causing Brilz to go limp, Bader handed the Nebraskan his third straight UFC loss in just 67 seconds.