UFC Freedom 250 draws 8.2M viewers, behind MVP 9.3M

The UFC's historic Freedom 250 event, held on the South Lawn of the White House as part of national 250th anniversary celebrations, drew a significant audience but fell short of matching the viewership of a rival MMA card promoted by Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions last month. The outcome has ignited a public feud, with fighters and promoters trading barbs over the ratings.

According to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics data, the UFC's event, which featured two title fights including Justin Gaethje's upset lightweight championship victory over Ilia Topuria, averaged 7 million viewers in the U.S. on Paramount. Including Latin America, the average audience reached 8.2 million, with 17 million unique viewers watching at least one minute of the broadcast. Paramount confirmed it was the most-watched exclusive live event in the network's history.

However, those figures were surpassed by Most Valuable Promotions' inaugural MMA event in May, which was headlined by the return of former champion Ronda Rousey. That broadcast on Netflix averaged 9.3 million viewers in the United States. Both events peaked at 17 million viewers, though the UFC's peak was from the U.S. and Latin America only,...