Michael Bisping argues there was more atmosphere at the UFC Apex than Ronda Rousey’s return card

The UFC went head-to-head with the first MMA event to air live on Netflix on Saturday night.

UFC Vegas 117 recorded record low viewership since the sport’s leading MMA promotion made the switch to Paramount at the start of the year.

While Melquizael Costa thought fans would switch channels to watch his first main event at the Apex in Las Vegas, this does not appear to have happened.

Michael Bisping wasn’t working in the commentary booth this past weekend but did tune in to watch both events, which led him to one comparison.

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Michael Bisping admits he might be biased but believes the UFC Apex sounded louder than the Intuit Dome

Nakisa Bidarian said he was confident that the first MVP MMA wouldn’t be a one-off, but it would depend on the numbers Saturday’s card drew on Netflix.

Those figures haven’t been released yet, but it has been reported that 15,795 people were in attendance at the Intuit Dome, which has a capacity of around 18,300 for typical events.

That didn’t stop Michael Bisping from arguing that there was a better atmosphere inside the under-1000-capacity UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

“I was bouncing back and forth. Now, I don’t know, maybe I’m biased,” he admitted on his Believe You Me podcast. “The UFC was at the Apex. It sounded louder than the Intuit Dome. There definitely seemed like there was more vibe coming from the small Apex… It didn’t seem like there were many people there.”

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Bisping also raised the point that it was the prelims of both events that he was watching live before catching up on the rest of the cards later.

This could explain the former UFC middleweight champion’s point, as a lot of the fans attending the Intuit Dome will have been buying a ticket to see the stars at the top of the card like Ronda Rousey and Nate Diaz.

It’s very common for a lot of fans to not be in their seats for the first bout of the night at big shows like this, while the limited capacity of the Apex will attract a more hardcore fan.

While we don’t yet know how many of the 15,795 people were paid attendees, the Intuit Dome didn’t look particularly empty, even though the UFC’s last event in the same building (UFC 311) had over 2,000 more people in attendance.