UFC Vegas 33 miles ahead of Bellator 263 as number of average viewers for both events are revealed
The UFC recently returned to Vegas for its first fight night in August, featuring a middleweight headliner between Sean Strickland and Uriah Hall. Scott Coker decided to go toe-to-toe with the UFC, scheduling Bellator 263 at the same time as UFC Vegas 33.
Bellator 263 was headlined by a highly anticipated featherweight title bout between Patricio Pitbull and A.J. McKee. However, fans appear to have been more interested in a UFC Fight Night than a Bellator pay-per-view event featuring a title bout.
The UFC is undoubtedly still the largest MMA promotion in the world. It grossly outnumbered rival promotion Bellator in terms of viewership at their recent events. According to reports, UFC Vegas 33 averaged 797k viewers on ESPN and peaked at 953k viewers during the main event. Meanwhile, Bellator 263 averaged 85k viewers and peaked at 177k during the Pitbull vs. McKee main event.
The UFC Vegas 33 headliner saw a dominant striking display from Sean Strickland. His jab led the dance for the most part in the fight, eventually earning him a unanimous decision victory against the veteran middleweight contender.
Meanwhile, A.J. McKee has dethroned Patricio Pitbull in what is being regarded as one of the greatest events in Bellator history. McKee dropped the Brazilian with an early left head kick before submitting Pitbull with a guillotine choke at 1:57 of Round 1.
Bellator CEO Scott Coker has called out the UFC for a cross promotion event
A.J. McKee created headlines by defeating five-time defending Bellator featherweight champion Patricio 'Pitbull' Freire in the main event at Bellator 263. The 26-year-old dispatched his opponent within the two-minute mark of the opening round to claim the featherweight grand prix $1 million prize.
Bellator president Scott Coker took this opportunity to capitalize on the star potential of A.J. McKee and immediately called out the UFC for a cross-promotion fight with the newly crowned champ. Acknowledging the low probability of such a fight coming to fruition, Scott Coker said after the event:
“Yeah, I mean I would love to see (McKee) fight against other people as well, as you guys would also, but it’s not going to happen because it’s not the UFC’s business model to do it. But you tell me this kid couldn’t go in there and fight anybody right now. Everybody knows that he can do it. So if they want to get it on, we’d do it in a second".