Combate Americas Declares Victory Over UFC, Bellator

Combate Americas announced the latest ratings homerun for its electric and action-packed Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) extravaganza that pulled in more than 416,000 network television viewers on Univision in its midnight ET time slot, last Friday, June 21 from State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas.

“The ratings for the latest Combate Americas live television show on Friday night confirm what we’ve known – combat sport fans prefer ‘Mucha Mas Acción,’ and our style and brand of fighting which is the best of old-style unpredictability combined with new generation MMA,” said Campbell McLaren, Combate Americas CEO. “Young adults especially recognize our bouts have more action, drama and entertainment than any other MMA organization and Combate Americas has, as a result, become appointment television.”

Combate Americas, on Friday night, outdrew general market leader, the 26-year-old Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and it’s heavily hyped event by more than 3,000 viewers despite UFC’s 4 p.m. ET time slot the following day, Saturday, June 22 on ESPN.

Combate Americas dominated the other general market leader, Bellator, by a far greater margin – more than 30,000 viewers – despite Bellator’s advantage of airing in primetime at 9 p.m. ET on the Paramount Network on Saturday, June 22.

Friday’s telecast was also the second highest rated show in its time slot for the week on any Hispanic television network.

Combate Americas’ trend of dominating other major sports telecasts also continued with Friday’s telecast from Hidalgo pulling in a higher viewership than two FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer matches that aired on Telemundo, including the heavily anticipated and promoted Sweden vs. USA matchup that garnered 405,000 viewers on Thursday, June 20.

The Combate Americas broadcast topped the FIFA Women’s World Cup match between Germany and Nigeria that aired on Saturday, June 22 and drew 409,000 viewers.

In the 150-pound catchweight main event of the nine-bout Combate Americas live television show from State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, rising star Cooper “The Bitter Truth” Gibson (10-2) from Los Angeles, Calif. ended the undefeated run of Mission, Texas-based star Ricky “El Gallero” Palacios (11-2) via first round (4:02) submission (arm triangle choke), while Enrique “Baby Bull” Gonzalez (8-3) of Chicago, Ill. via Laredo, Texas edged out a split decision in his Combate Americas television debut over Alejandro “Pato” Martinez (4-4) of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico in the co-main event that was also contested at a catchweight of 150 pounds.

In a thrilling, featured women’s strawweight (115 pounds) bout, Desiree “Dirty Dez” Yanez (5-1) of Waco, Texas defeated previously undefeated Paulina Vargas (4-1) of Guadalajara, Jalisco via third round (1:54) submission (tap out due to ankle injury).

Ratings information was used from Nielsen.