UFC on FOX 21 overnights down 9% from last month’s summer record

Headlined by Demian Maia’s first round submission win over Carlos Condit, Saturday night’s UFC on FOX saw a ratings dip of about 9% from the July show featuring Holly Holm and Valentina Shevchenko in the main event.

According to overnight ratings, the show averaged 2.221 million viewers over the two hours. The overnight number was the second lowest in the last two years, beating only UFC on FOX 19 in April with Glover Teixeira and Rashad Evans in the main event.

Saturday’s show also featured Paige VanZant picking up a win over Bec Rawlings by knockout and Anthony Pettis submitting Charles Oliveira in the semi-main event.

The show did 2.184 million viewers in the first hour, then increased slightly to 2.258 million in the second. It put FOX in third place for the night among major networks, beating NBC, which aired original episodes of serial drama Aquarias.

Final numbers won’t be available until Tuesday. Those are usually 10-15% higher, which would mean this show should end up doing in the 2.5-2.6 million viewer range.

Here’s a chart comparing overnight ratings of the past 10 UFC on FOX shows: