Strikeforce "Tate vs. Rousey" garners 431,000 viewers to Showtime

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Saturday's Strikeforce "Tate vs. Rousey" event saw an uptick in viewership from January's "Rockhold vs. Jardine" card, as MMAJunkie.com reports that the event drew 431,000 viewers to Showtime.

That number is almost 90,000 more than the January event, and ranks as the seventh best number since the beginning of 2011 for Strikeforce on Showtime.

Saturday's card was headlined by the much-talked about Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Championship, which was won by "Rowdy" Ronda Rousey when she destroyed Miesha Tate's arm in the second armbar she procured in the first round.

The card also featured several well-known Strikeforce vets, including former Champions Josh Thomson and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, as well as welterweights Paul Daley and Scott Smith.

Penick's Analysis: That's a really solid number for Strikeforce as of late, and a very good number for Tate and Rousey. There was no guarantee that the fight would draw very well, especially with both being very much unproven as draws despite a lot of chatter about this particular matchup. Rousey's stock has certainly risen out of the win on Saturday night, and the draw of her next matchup will be very interesting to see. Still, many were expecting a lot worse for this event, so this is definitely a very positive number.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Affliction2/article_12719.shtml

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