The UFC’s January trek to Boston during NFL playoff season may become an annual rite, as the organization and broadcast partner Fox scored big for the second straight year on fights immediately following football telecasts.

The Fox Sports 1 broadcast logged an average of 2.28 million viewers over the two-hour, 40-minute broadcast on Jan. 17 from TD Garden, good for the second largest audience for a UFC card on FS1.

Asked before the event if January shows in the Hub would be an annual tradition, UFC president Dana White said, “It’s looking pretty damn good for us.”

FS1’s record UFC rating was last January’s card from the Garden, headlined by Conor McGregor in a breakthrough performance against Denis Siver. The event drew 2.75 million viewers on average.

The peak audience in this month’s broadcast came during the heavyweight clash between Travis Browne and Matt Mitrione — 2.46 million viewers — while the main event that saw Dominick Cruz unseat T.J. Dillashaw hovered between 2.35 and 2.4 million for the 25-minute bout. The fight, which entered the cage around midnight. was plugged consistently during Fox’s broadcast of the NFC divisional round game between the Seahawks and Panthers.

Box office returns were relatively solid. The UFC reported a turnout of 12,022 at the Garden on Jan. 17 for a $1.3 million gate haul, a tick down from the $1.34 million of last year.

Change works for Browne

Travis Browne’s Boston stop was a redemptive one, as he brutally dispatched Matt Mitrione by slamming him on his shoulder — separating it — and then going into ground-and-pound mode for a third-round stoppage that left Mitrione with a gruesome hematoma above his eye. Browne did take heat for two eye pokes that altered the course of the fight, worsened by a referee slow to recognize the fouls and deduct points.

Coming in, Browne had taken widespread criticism for switching camps from the famed Jackson/Winklejohn squad in New Mexico to Glendale (Calif.) Fighting Club. The gym is helmed by boxer Edmond Tarverdyan and was put on the MMA map by Browne’s girlfriend, former UFC champ Ronda Rousey.

In his second fight with the camp, Browne was drawn into an ill-advised brawl with Andrei Arlovski, leaving him finished in the first round after taking big shots. The criticism was magnified when Tarverdyan took much of the blame for Rousey’s blowout loss at the hands and feet of Holly Holm in November.

Browne said it’s hard for those on the periphery to see what Tarverdyan has brought to his game.

“What they don’t know is what goes into this game, and every person, every individual, they learn differently, they train differently or they get the confidence in different ways,” Browne told the Herald. “I feel like being with Coach Edmond, he’s been able to really teach me the game of fighting, and that’s something I’ve never had before. Before it was like, just go. But there was no, ‘OK, why am I doing this?’ (Now, it’s) like, ‘Why do you use a jab?’ ‘How do you use it?’ ‘When do you use your cross; why do you use your cross?’ It’s all about breaking it down and really understanding, so your percentages will go up. So when I throw this, this is what can hit me. When I throw this, that’s what can hit me.”

While Browne entertained questions on his training decisions, he was not talkative about his superstar girlfriend or how she is faring after her first loss.

“People can ask all they want, but doesn’t mean they’re going to get a response out of me,” Browne said. “I don’t owe anybody a response to a question like that. It’s my personal life and it’s how I look at it.”

Alvarez’ home fire burning

Eddie Alvarez didn’t hesitate to talk his personal life, as it had everything to do with his relocating from the Blackzilians camp in Florida back to his native Philadelphia before his Boston win over former champion Anthony Pettis.

A lifelong Philly guy, Alvarez uprooted his wife and four young sons to move to Boca Raton, Fla., a few years ago to try his hand at training alongside the MMA superstars the camp amassed. But it was an isolating experience.

“It wasn’t working, my kids were on the computer too much,” Alvarez said. “When we live in Philadelphia, we have a lot of friends, family, my kids have tons of friends on our block. I didn’t like the way our life was. So we had a family talk, we all decided hey, we tried this, we put our best foot forward, time to go back.”

Colors don’t fly for Rosa

Peabody native Charles Rosa’s homecoming came with an unwelcome twist. While the featherweight logged a hard fought decision in the home of his favored Bruins, he wasn’t allowed to wear his custom black and gold jersey to the cage — as he did last year — due to the UFC’s new exclusive Reebok uniform deal.

Rosa said he pled his case to UFC bosses Lorenzo Fertitta and White the night before his fight.

“The one (loophole) I thought I had was the NHL. (The) Bruins are sponsored by Reebok, and it says Reebok on the jersey, but (the UFC) said ‘No, it could actually risk getting bonus performance (money) if you wear anything else,’ ” Rosa said. “I didn’t want to risk that.”