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Monday, July 24, 2006
 
Mixed Martial Arts--- Most-Watched Fights of The Ultimate Fighter's Third Season
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

A total of 15 fights aired on the third season of The Ultimate Fighter, and what follows is a ranking of the fights from #1 to #15 in terms of viewership, along with a breakdown of which specific fighters drew the highest average ratings.

Kendall Grove and Josh Haynes each took two of the top four spots, but Haynes was also in the #15 position for his semi-final fight against Jesse Forbes.

1. Kendall Grove defeats Ed Herman: 2.5 rating (fight aired on TUF 3 live finale)

2. Michael Bisping defeats Josh Haynes: 2.5 rating (fight aired on TUF 3 live finale)

3. Kendall Grove defeats Ross Pointon: 2.3 rating (fight aired on Episode 3)

4. Josh Haynes defeats Tait Fletcher: 2.1 rating (fight aired on Episode 7)

5. Rory Singer defeats Solomon Hutcherson: 2.1 rating (fight aired on Episode 5)

6. Matt Hamill defeats Mike Nickels: 2.0 rating (fight aired on Episode 9)

7. Ed Herman defeats Danny Abaddi: 2.0 rating (fight aired on Episode 8)

8. Kalib Starnes defeats Mike Stine: 1.9 rating (fight aired on Episode 1)

9. Michael Bisping defeats Kristian Rothaermel: 1.8 rating (fight aired on Episode 4)

10. Matt Hamill defeats Jesse Forbes: 1.6 rating (fight aired on TUF 3 live finale)

11. Ed Herman defeats Rory Singer: 1.6 rating (fight aired on Episode 11)

12. Kendall Grove defeats Kalib Starnes: 1.6 rating (fight aired on Episode 10)

13. Michael Bisping defeats Ross Pointon: 1.6 rating (fight aired on Episode 12)

14. Noah Inhofer defeats Jesse Forbes: 1.5 rating (fight aired on Episode 2)

15. Josh Haynes defeats Jesse Forbes: 1.3 rating (fight aired on Episode 12)

Individual Fighter Averages
Here's how the individual fighters rank in terms of average viewership for their fights on TUF 3 (including the live finale). This list only includes fighters who fought at least twice.

1. Kendall Grove: 2.13 average over three fights

2. Ed Herman: 2.03 average over three fights

3. Josh Haynes: 1.97 average over three fights (tied with Michael Bisping)

3. Michael Bisping: 1.97 average over three fights (tied with Josh Haynes)

5. Ross Pointon: 1.95 average over two fights

6. Rory Singer: 1.85 average over two fights

7. Matt Hamill: 1.80 average over two fights

8. Kalib Starnes: 1.75 average over two fights

9. Jesse Forbes: 1.47 average over three fights

only had one fight on the air: Tait Fletcher, Solomon Hutcherson, Mike Nickels, Danny Abaddi, Mike Stine, Kristian Rothaermel, Noah Inhofer

TUF 1 vs. TUF 2 vs. TUF 3
In terms of overall ratings, the twelve-episode regular season of TUF 3 drew ratings of 2.0, 1.3, 1.9, 1.6, 1.6, 1.7, 1.9, 1.8, 1.8, 1.5, 1.5, and 1.4, so the regular season average was a 1.7 overall rating.

The Ultimate Fighter 3's average rating of 1.7 is better than TUF 1's average rating of 1.6, and is significantly better than TUF 2's average rating of 1.4.

The ratings for TUF 3 were even more impressive in the 18-to-34-year-old male demographic. In that demo, the first season averaged a 2.2 rating, the second season averaged a 2.5 rating, and the third season averaged a 2.9 rating.

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