Walt Disney Releases First Still from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ by Tasha St. Pierre

Dec 28, 2013; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Chris Leben (red gloves) and Uriah Hall (blue gloves) fight during their UFC middleweight bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Hall won Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

UFC 168 was easily the most anticipated MMA event in recent history. The event was absolutely stacked from top to bottom, featuring to colossal rematches in the co-main and main event. Couple that with the incredible pre-fight hype and momentum going into the event, and the numbers will deliver. Today, Fox Sports 1 announced that the UFC 168 prelims delivered record viewership for Fox Sports 1. Here is the statement from Fox Sports 1:

The UFC 168 PRELIMS on FOX Sports 1 on Saturday night (8:00-10:00 PM ET) averaged 1,554,000 viewers, making it the most-watched UFC PRELIMS to date on the channel. The event was up 56% over the previous mark set on Nov. 16 (998,000), and ranks as the fifth most-watched show on the network since launch. In addition, the exciting two-hour show that featured Uriah Hall’s TKO victory over Chris Leben in the final bout, was the second most-watched UFC show to date on FOX Sports 1, only trailing UFC FIGHT NIGHT: SHOGUN VS. SONNEN on August 17.

Not only did the prelims deliver record viewership, but the post-fight coverage did as well:

Following the conclusion of UFC 168, the UFC 168 POSTFIGHT SHOW on FOX Sports 1 delivered the most-watched POSTFIGHT show to date with 313,000 viewers, up 26% over FOX Sports 1’s first Pay-Per-View postfight show following UFC 167 that had 249,000 viewers. The one-hour show featured interviews with middleweight champion Chris Weidman and women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey after both their title defenses.

These numbers are obviously fantastic for the UFC and the Fox network. That being said, not every event is UFC 168, so these numbers probably won’t be eclipsed for some time.

UFC 168 was not only was great on paper, but the fights delivered exciting action and finishes galore. The UFC has closed out 2013 very well, and it will begin 2014 with UFC Fight Night 34 this Saturday.