Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva was a success for Showtime with its broadcast ofthe event averaging 741,000 viewers and peaking at 1.1million during the main event match between Fedor Emelianenko and Antonio Silva.
Before people rush to proclaim Fedor Strikeforce’s biggest draw is worth remembering that Strikeforce’s ratings have been on a upwards swing for a while with last month’s Nick Diaz vs. Cyborg welterweight title fight being watched by more than 850,000 people. And its worth pointing out that far more resource were put into promoting “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva” than the Diaz fight due to it being the opening round of the Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix. And unlike Diaz vs. Cyborg it was held in a major media market and was not going head-to-head with boxing on HBO. All these factors mean that in reality Fedor was almost certainly not the sole or even the major cause of the increase in viewers from the previous event. Because of this one really has to wonder whether the extra expense and headaches generated by Fedor and his handlers M-1 Global is actually worth it.