Mixed martial arts may not yet have achieved full mainstream acceptance as some in the sport maintain, but the UFC's second broadcast on Fox on Saturday will likely take it a few steps closer.

The top MMA promotion's November debut on Fox, featuring a title fight between champion Cain Velasquez and challenger Junior Dos Santos, peaked with 8.8 million viewers, according to UFC President Dana White.

That made it the most-watched event in the promotion's history, as well as the most-viewed professional fight since Lennox Lewis defeated Vitali Klitschko in 2003 on HBO, Sherdog.com, a leading MMA website, reported.

It's not for nothing that MMA is frequently called, most recently by Fox Sports Media Group President Eric Shanks, the fastest-growing sport in the world.

Of course, the UFC and Fox are hoping that first-time MMA viewers didn't get turned off by the fact that the much-hyped Velasquez/Dos Santos fight — the only bout on the Nov. 12 broadcast — while scheduled for five rounds, lasted all of 64 seconds. Dos Santos quickly caught Velasquez with a monster overhand right, dropping him in a stunning TKO that secured the Brazilian the heavyweight belt.

Afterward, White was visibly irked at the anti-climatic quickness of Dos Santos' victory, wondering why Velasquez — whose strength is wrestling — chose to stand and bang with superior striker Dos Santos, rather than take the fight to the ground.

More than two months later, however, White looks back and smiles at the broadcast's big numbers.

"We were pumped by the response to our first UFC on Fox," White told the Star this week. "Even though it was a short, explosive fight, it peaked with 8.8 million watching on Fox and another half million watching on Fox Deportes."