Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey' ratings

This past weekend's "Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey" event drew an average audience of 431,000 viewers.

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

The number marks a 25 percent increase from January's "Rockhold vs. Jardine" event, which drew 344,000 viewers during a "free-preview" weekend.

"Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey" took place this past Saturday, March 3, at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The event's main card aired live on Showtime while preliminary-card fights aired on Showtime Extreme. (Ratings for Showtime Extreme weren't immediately available.)

In the night's main event, undefeated judoka Ronda Rousey secured a brutal first-round armbar to submit former champ Miesha Tate and claim the promotion's female bantamweight title.

The "Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey" audience peaked with 506,000 viewers at 12:06 a.m. According to a play-by-play at USAToday.com, that time coincides with the opening minute of the night's main event.

Strikeforce's eight 2011 "Arena Series" events drew an average audience size of 521,375 viewers to Showtime. The promotion's two events thus far in 2012 have averaged 387,500 viewers

Prior to this past weekend, the most recent event, January's "Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine," averaged 344,000 viewers.

The ratings for Strikeforce "Arena Series" shows since 2011 include:

1. "Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva" (February 2011): 741,000 viewers
2. "Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum" (June 2011): 624,000
3. "Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson" (July 20011): 571,000
4. "Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg" (January 20011): 561,000
5. "Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley" (April 2011): 528,000
6. "Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal" (December 2011): 460,000
7. "Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey" (March 2012): 431,000
8. "Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson" (March 2011): 412,000
9. "Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine" (January 2012): 344,000
10. "Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov" (September 2011): 274,000

Strikeforce and Showtime recently reached a new deal that calls for up to eight events this year. The prospects-driven Strikeforce Challengers event series has been phased out as part of the new deal.

i had a feeling it would do bigger numbers. It was pretty well promoted and there was a lot of talk about it afterwards...but it did about half of what Carano-Cyborg did. Though i think next time Rousey fights the ratings will be bigger.

thats too bad because it was a good card.

I cannot wait until Cyborg returns. Will be the biggest fight in WMMA history. Because by then Ronda will have wised up and engaged in a public feud with the more famous than ever Gina, saying she ran away from MMA to do Hollywood and isn't as hot, will have ripped another arm or two off since then, and will be fighting the Roid abusing, manly, Carano killing foreigner making her return. And unlike the Carano fight, Ronda will be given a chance to actually win this fight.

While there really won't be enough chicks for a while to justify this long term, what they should do is let her keep the 35 belt, and recreate the 45 belt for the Cyborg fight, also marketing Ronda in a pound for pound light, "first woman attempting to win in two weight classes" stuff etc. That would also let Ronda fight at whatever weight class she is really best at, feasting on the challengers in any of those weight divisions, eliminating the issue Cyborg had with bitches running away from her, if she wins of course. If she loses a 45 fight with Cyborg, "she was just too small", and is still a standing champ at 35 with the damage to her brand lessened.

On the other hand, they could force Cyborg to try and cut to 35 which will help ensure Ronda can beat her dessicated corpse.

can I make a crazy prediction

Cyborg via heel hook