The retirement fight of King Mo Lawal led Bellator to its best television rating since July, even with a lot of sports competition.
Friday’s show from Thackerville, Okla., did 314,000 viewers, the highest for the promotion since a July 12 show that did 325,000 viewers for a Julia Budd women’s featherweight title defense against Olga Rubin.
Lawal, 38, a former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, and one of Bellator’s signature stars during his seven-year run with the promotion, had retired after a loss to Jiri Prochazka on April 21 in Yokohama, Japan.