While the UFC has made no secret that they expect last Saturday’s UFC 147 to be possibly the worst-performing UFC pay-per-view of the past 5+ years, the early TV ratings from Brazil indicate the event was a huge hit in the country that hosted it.
We already knew (via MMA Junkie) that attendance was the best-yet for a UFC in Brazil at 16,643 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Now thanks to a tweet from Tatame.com editor Eduardo Ferreira that the early reports have total viewership in Brazil at a a very strong 20 million.
Here’s his tweet (as translated by MMA.TV):
UFC 147 surpasses Ronaldinho debut in BH. The event hit 17 points (20 million) on Rede Globo t.tatame.com.br/28512
— Eduardo Ferreira (@dudutatame) June 25, 2012
This is down slightly from reports for viewership numbers for UFC 134 (30 million) and UFC 142 (23 million) which also were held in Brazil.
Not bad for a show they were offering fans full ticket refunds for after the main event went from Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen to Vitor Belfort vs. Wanderlei Silva and finally Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva.
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