UFC 143 was the promotion’s second time utilizing the FX platform to showcase preliminary fights. After some dissappointing ratings for the UFC 142 prelims, some were worried that the UFC was associated with Spike TV too much and that the new network television deal wouldn’t be as smooth as assumed.
The good news is that those fears are not justified. The UFC 143 prelims averaged 1.4 million viewers over a two hour period, which is in line with the hour prelim specials that the promotion was pulling with Spike TV. While fans may still not have adjusted to the UFC’s new television partner, there are indications that the television deal will be beneficial to both FOX and Zuffa.
The UFC 143 prelims on FX opened with an exciting fight between Matt Riddle and Henry Martinez. It was headlined by a featherweight scrap between Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway, which saw Poirier win the fight with a mounted triangle choke and earn submission of the night honors. The other bouts were Matt Brown vs Chris Cope and Alex Caceres vs Edwin Figueroa.