Kimbo vs. Shamrock Smashes Bellator Ratings Record by 27 Percent

Bellator 138 featured a 51-year-old UFC Hall of Famer fighting against a 41-year-old street fighter turned MMA fighter. The end result was ridiculously underwhelming. Seriously, the fight was so bad it has caused many in the sports community to contemplate whether or not it was fixed.  

Check out this burn from Fox Sports 1’s Garbage Time host Katie Nolan.

But despite a sloppy performance, Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock took the Bellator promotion to new heights last Friday by breaking its all-time viewership record by 27 percent.

MMAFighting.com's Dave Meltzer reported the news on Monday.

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The promotion broke its all-time viewership record for Bellator 138, the Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock-led card, doing 1.58 million viewers on average for the three-hour presentation from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. The highest quarter hour was the main event, which did 2.1 million viewers.

[...]

The number beat the previous record by 27 percent, beating the promotion's old record of 1.24 million viewers on average for the Nov. 15 show that was headlined by Tito Ortizvs. Stephan Bonnar. The Ortiz vs. Bonnar main event did 1.84 million viewers for the peak quarter hour.

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Update: Luke Thomas of MMAFighting.com tweeting out updated info on viewership as provided by SPIKE. 

---End of Update---

Kimbo defeated Shamrock by TKO at two minutes, 22 seconds in the first round after surviving an early takedown and a rear-naked choke attempt.

The Scottrade Center in St. Louis played host to the record-breaking event, which also featured Bellator stars Michael Chandler, Patricio Freire, Bobby Lashley and Daniel Straus.  

Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He also is the MMA writer for FanRag Sports and co-founder of The MMA Bros.