Ultimate Fighter Finale Ratings Released

The ratings for the finale of The Ultimate Fighter are in and the news is very good for the UFC.  MMAWeekly with the numbers:

Spike TV on Tuesday revealed that Kimbo’s fight with Houston Alexander led the charge for "The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights" finale, drawing a peak of 5.2 million viewers. The season 10 finale averaged 3.7 million viewers over the course of the three-hour telecast.

The ratings were strong enough to make the Kimbo versus Alexander fight the most watched UFC bout of 2009, the finale the most watched final episode in Ultimate Fighter history, and shattered the series’ average viewership.

The previous nine seasons of the series averaged two million viewers per episode. Season 10 averaged 3.4 million, which was bolstered by the episode featuring Kimbo versus eventual season winner Roy Nelson. Their episode drew an average of 5.3 million viewers, including 6.1 million that tuned in during the time of their fight.

Keep in mind that the UFC was given no time to hype the event at all, especially the fact that Kimbo would be fighting.  Spike and the UFC both kept hinting at a possible return to the competition by Slice so they were not given the luxury of hyping Slice/Alexander for a month or more.

These numbers are a huge win for the promotion and the network and do seem to suggest good things for Kimbo's next UFC fight which should provide plenty of time for proper hype.