UFC 94 replay a ratings success for Spike TV on April 11

UFC 94: “St. Pierre vs. Penn 2,” which took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 31, “pummeled the competition on both broadcast and cable” when it re-aired for free this weekend on Spike TV.

According to a recent press release from the network, UFC 94 was the number one program among men aged 18 to 34 “in all of television (cable and broadcast) during its time period (9 p.m. to 12 a.m. ET) on Saturday, April 11, 2009, scoring an overall 1.4 household rating and drawing an average audience of 1.9 million viewers.

In fact, it was the highest-rated telecast among men (aged 18 to 49) on cable for the entire day, which means that it likely attracted way more viewers than Strikeforce did with its “Shamrock vs. Diaz” mixed martial arts special on Showtime.

Whether or not the UFC was able to steal a huge chunk of fans away from watching the Strikeforce show, which it apparently was trying to do with its latest counter programming effort, remains to be seen. Regardless, the rebroadcast of UFC 94 was a ratings success.

And that’s shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, considering all the brouhaha before, during and after the “fight of a lifetime” between the two champions in their primes.

UFC 94 sold 13,622 tickets for an official live gate $4,290,020, according to The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC). Complimentary tickets to the tune of 1,263 pushed attendance near the 15,000 mark, which would place it third all-time for the promotion behind UFC 83: “St. Pierre vs. Serra 2” back in April 2008 (21,390) and UFC 68: “The Uprising” in March 2007 (19,079).

In terms of revenue at the turn stiles, UFC 94 placed sixth — UFC 66, UFC 83, UFC 79, UFC 91 and UFC 71 all fared better at their respective gates.

Georges St. Pierre defeated BJ Penn via fourth round technical knockout to retain his 170-pound crown in the UFC 94 main event. Machida took one giant step toward earning his 205-pound title shot next month at UFC 98, blasting the previously undefeated Thiago Silva with a thundering first round knockout punch.

UFC dished out $1.1 million in fighter salaries for the pay-per-view (PPV) event and another $325,000 in additional bonus money for five participants who delivered outstanding performances.