Above: Combate Americas’ first live event of 2020, headlined by reigning, undefeated world lightweight champion Rafa “Gifted” Garcia’s (pictured) successful title defense, was a massive television ratings winner last Friday, Feb. 21. Photo credit: Scott Hirano/Combate Americas, LLC
COMBATE AMERICAS SCORES MASSIVE UNIVISION RATINGS WIN WITH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT AND FIRST SHOW OF 2020 ON FRIDAY, FEB. 21
SHOW DELIVERS SECOND LARGEST A18-49 AUDIENCE IN COMBATE AMERICAS HISTORY, BEATS TELEMUNDO BOXING AUDIENCE IN THIS DEMO BY 83% MARGIN
TOTAL COMBATE AMERICAS LATE-NIGHT VIEWERSHIP BEATS BELLATOR’S PRIMETIME AIRING BY OVER 72 %MARGIN
FRESNO– February 27 – Combate Americas today announced a massive television ratings win with its first show of the year last Friday, Feb. 21 from Mexicali, B.C., Mexico.
“Combate Americas went back on the air with a knockout last Friday, and set the tone for a big 2020,” said Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren.
In its midnight ET time slot, the Combate Americas world championship event brought in a total of 511,000 P2+ viewers on Univision.
The total viewership included 274,000 A18-49 viewers, beating the A18-49 viewership of Telemundo’s boxing program, which began at 11:30 p.m. ET the same night, by an astounding margin of 83 percent.
Combate Americas’ total Univision viewership bested that of Bellator, which aired in primetime the same night on Paramount, by over 72 percent. Combate Americas’ A18-49 audience nearly matched Bellator’s P2+ viewership of 296,000.
The performance made it Combate Americas’ second-most watched event in the coveted A18-49 demographic since the Hispanic MMA sports franchise premiered on Univision in April 2018.
In the much-anticipated main event, Rafa “Gifted” Garcia (12-0) of Mexicali successfully defended his coveted world lightweight (155 pounds) title and extended his perfect record with a unanimous decision over 2019 “COPA COMBATE” tournament champion and number one contender Humberto Bandenay (18-8, 1 NC) of Lima, Peru.
Source: Nielsen
###ABOUT COMBATE AMERICAS
Combate Americas is the premier Hispanic Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) sports franchise, rapidly becoming the number two sport after soccer, for Spanish speaking fans worldwide. The Combate Americas franchise includes live event and original shoulder programming on some of the biggest television, OTT and digital platforms in Spanish and English, including Univision, Televisa, TUDN, AXS TV, GOL and Facebook Watch worldwide. The company also owns and operates a multi-platform media studio, La Jaula Studios.
Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren, also the co-founder/co-creator of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has been described by New York Magazine as “the marketing genius behind the UFC,” while Yahoo Sports has said he “knows more about the sport than just about anyone in it today.” With an unprecedented and cutting edge product and a blue-chip ownership and management team, Combate Americas is poised to break new ground and bring about a new era in world championship level MMA competition.
