Last Saturday night was a good night for new UFC Strawweight Mackenzie Dern and the UFC in general.
Dern not only pushed her win streak up to 6-0, but 1,076,000 viewers tuned in to watch the UFC 222 prelims, which her match against Ashley Yoder headlined.
Mackenzie may have had a lot to do with this. According to MMA Fighting:
A key to the numbers may have been the UFC debut of Mackenzie Dern, since her fight with Ashley Yoder was the high point of the show with 1,076,000 viewers.
MMA Fighting also reported that this was in spite of significant competition from other sporting events. Saturday night featured two of the biggest teams in the NBA, The Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets, playing each other on ABC, and NBC had a hockey match between the Washington Capitols and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Furthermore, there were other big combat sports events airing that night. Sergey Kovalev and Igor Mikhalkin were boxing on HBO, as were Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz on Showtime.
Still, the UFC 222 prelims did surprisingly well.
Could Mackenzie Dern be the next big draw in the UFC? Considering MMA’s top promotion is currently in need of star power, Dern might be exactly what the UFC needs.
