Modern Fighting

Fight was Highest-Rated and Most-Watched WEC on VERSUS Telecast Ever;

Epic Bout to Re-Air Wednesday, June 4, at 7 and 10 p.m. ET
 
Stamford, CONN. (June 3, 2008)—VERSUS, the network that celebrates real competition and the exclusive cable television home of World Extreme Cagefighting® (WEC™), garnered a 1.4 HH rating and averaged 1,535,705 viewers (P2+) for its June 1 WEC telecast featuring the most-anticipated featherweight fight in history between WEC champion Urijah Faber and former UFC® champion Jens Pulver.  The fight lived up to the hype as Faber, in his epic homecoming bout, retained his title by unanimous decision after going five explosive rounds in the cage with Pulver.

Since the WEC debuted on VERSUS one-year ago, the June 1 telecast is the highest-rated and most-watched WEC on VERSUS telecast ever and the highest-rated and most-watched non-NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs / non-Tour de France telecast in network history (OLN/VS) among households, total viewers and key male demos.  For the 9-11:45 p.m. ET time period, VERSUS was the most-watched cable network among Men 18-34 (534,385) and Men 18-49 (885,743).  Additionally, the Faber vs. Pulver telecast was the third most-watched telecast in network history (OLN/VS) among Men 25-54 (773,267).

As compared to the average of the previous six live fights on VERSUS, the June 1 telecast is up 180 percent in HH rating (1.4 vs .5), viewership jumped 216 percent (1,535,705 vs 485,288) and viewership for key male demos showed dramatic increases which range between 222 and 336 percent.  The June 1 HH rating is double the previous best WEC live telecast rating garnered on December 12 (1.4 vs .7) in which Urijah Faber choked out Jeff Curran in the second round in a title defense fight and Jens Pulver made his WEC debut.

In Sacramento, Faber’s hometown and the fight’s location, the telecast garnered a 2.7 HH rating, making VERSUS the #1 ranked cable network in the market for the 9-11:45 p.m. ET time period.

Urijah Faber Vs. Jens Pulver
Urijah Faber Wins by Unanimous Decision at 5:00 in the 5th round .

Yoshiro Maeda Vs. Miguel Angel Torres
Miguel Angel Torres Wins by Technical Knock Out at 5:00 in the 3rd round .

Chuck Grigsby Vs. Mark Munoz
Mark Munoz Wins by Knock Out at 4:15 in the 1st round .

Kenneth Alexander Vs. Rob McCullough
Rob McCullough Wins by Split Decision at 5:00 in the 3rd round .

Main Event – WEC Featherweight Championship
Jens Pulver (145) vs Urijah Faber (144.5)

WEC Bantamweight Championship
Yoshiro Maeda (135) vs Miguel Torres (135)

Kenneth Alexander (155.5) vs Rob McCullough (155.5)
Chuck Grigsby (204.5) vs Mark Munoz (205.5)

Donald Cerrone (155.5) vs Danny Castillo (155)
Mike Brown (145) vs Jeff Curran (144.5)
Will Ribeiro (135) vs Chase Beebe (136)
Jeremy Lang (183.5) vs Tim McKenzie (184.5)
Luis Sapo (170) vs Alex Serdyukov (169.5)
Alexandre Nogueira (145.5) vs Jose Aldo (145.5)
Dominick Cruz (135) vs Charlie Valencia (135.5)

By Michael DiSanto

On Wednesday afternoon, I was speaking with a venture capitalist about an investment in a privately held technology company in Silicon Valley, when he suddenly asked an unexpected question.

“Who do you think will win the big fight this weekend?”

The question threw me for a bit of a loop. I had never before discussed any type of sport fighting with him, so I didn’t know where he was going with the question. The first assumption, of course, was that he was referring to a boxing match, since that sport has a vast and storied history in America.

Yet, there is no major boxing event this weekend, so that couldn’t be it. I assumed, therefore, that he was referring to the UFC event that had occurred the prior weekend, so I informed him that the fights already occurred and that BJ Penn dominated Sean Sherk, Wanderlei Silva “axe murdered” Keith Jardine, and Tito Ortiz dropped what most believe was his final bout in the UFC.

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