Bellator 65 ratings: Event scores 163,000 MTV2 viewers, tops season average

This past weekend's Bellator 65 event drew 163,000 MTV2 viewers, which topped the season-six average of 153,400 viewers.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the figures with industry sources.

The April 13 broadcast followed Bellator 64, which matched a season high with 175,000 viewers a week prior.

Bellator 65 took place at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. Spike.com-streamed prelims preceded the night's MTV2 broadcast (which was also available in high-definition on EPIX).

Bellator 65 featured Eduardo Dantas' bantamweight-championship win over Zach Makovsky in the night's headliner. In tourney bouts, featherweight Daniel Straus and bantamweights Luis Nogueira and Marcos Galvao advanced with victories.

Bellator's usual Friday-night competition, "The Ultimate Fighter: Live" on FX, saw a small ratings rebound. After a season and all-time series low of 947,000 viewers, the show drew one million this past weekend.

To date, MTV2 has aired 31 Bellator events. None of the season-six events has matched the averages from Bellator's first three seasons on MTV2. Currently, the organization is simply biding its time until it moves to Spike TV in 2013.

The all-time Bellator-MTV2 ratings include:

Bellator 65 ratings: 163,000 viewers
Bellator 64 ratings: 175,000
Bellator 63 ratings: 140,000
Bellator 62 ratings: 175,000
Bellator 61 ratings: 108,000
Bellator 60 ratings: 169,000
Bellator 49-59 ratings (season five average): 186,000
Bellator 46-48 ratings (Summer Series average): 229,000
Bellator 35-45 ratings (season four average): 204,000

http://mmajunkie.com/news/28288/bellator-65-ratings-event-scores-163000-mtv2-viewers-tops-season-average.mma

Great to see their ratings go up. Hopefully they get good ratings on Friday for their best card ever.