Ronda Rousey’s prediction has proven to be accurate: her May 16th bout against Gina Carano has been officially declared the most-watched MMA fight event in history.
The inaugural MMA event by Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) aired live on Netflix and featured Rousey vs. Carano as its main event. The card also included significant bouts such as Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry and Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins.
According to MVP, the event attracted 12.4 million live viewers worldwide, with the Rousey vs. Carano main event drawing a peak of 17 million viewers. Within the United States, the event averaged 9.3 million viewers, reaching a peak of 11.6 million during the headline fight. This achievement establishes a new U.S. record for MMA viewership, eclipsing the previous record of 8.8 million viewers set by the UFC’s debut on FOX in 2011, featuring Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez.
“We are immensely proud of this accomplishment, achieved in collaboration with our partners at Netflix and with deep gratitude to the athletes whose participation made MVP MMA’s debut such a resounding success,” stated Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of MVP, in a press release. “We have experienced an overwhelming surge of interest from investors, strategic partners, and fighters eager to join MVP and contribute to the future of MVP MMA. We are currently exploring all strategic avenues to make a significant impact in the MMA landscape going forward, alongside a distribution partner like Netflix that shares our vision for creating lasting influence.”
The event also generated a live gate of $2.2 million and garnered one billion impressions across Netflix’s global social media platforms.
