UFC on ESPN 21 Main Card Averages 721,000 Viewers

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.