Bellator 58 Bounces Back with 269,000 Viewers on MTV2

Bellator Fighting Championships 58 earned an average of 269,000 viewers with its Saturday night broadcast on MTV2, more than doubling the previous week’s total of 129,000 viewers.

Headlined by an exciting lightweight title fight pitting champion Eddie Alvarez against Season 4 tournament winner Michael Chandler, Bellator 58 emanated from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla.

Spike TV officials announced the figure on Tuesday, noting that the broadcast’s immediate replay netted an additional 160,000 viewers, making a combined total of 429,000 for both broadcasts. Spike reps also revealed that the viewership peaked at 8:45 p.m. ET, the show’s final quarter-hour, with 345,000 viewers.

On the same night that Dan Henderson and Mauricio Rua went to war at UFC 139, Alvarez and Chandler produced their own “Fight of the Year” candidate, battling for three hard-fought rounds before Chandler finished the champion with a rear-naked choke to capture the title in round four.

The event also saw middleweight champion Hector Lombard knock out Trevor Prangley in a non-title, catchweight affair. Additionally, Marlon Sandro and Jessica Aguilar posted victories during the main card broadcast, besting Rafael Dias and Lisa Ellis-Ward, respectively.

The overall viewership for the Nov. 19 show tied the promotion’s third-best all-time showing on MTV2, drawing even with October’s Bellator 52. Also featuring Lombard, Bellator 44 still holds the promotion’s viewership record, earning 325,000 viewers this past May.