Deontay Wilder produced big ratings for Showtime on Saturday night as his win over Luis Ortiz drew 1.055 million viewers on the premium network.
Wilder’s fight with Ortiz drew a peak audience of 1.2 million viewers and averaged almost 1.1 million viewers. It’s the largest viewership since Wilder faced Bermane Stiverne in January 2015.
Wilder stopped Ortiz in the 10th round but the Cuban fighter had the champion hurt in the seventh round after being floored in round 5.
The co-main event on Saturday night drew 673,000 viewers with Jose Uzcategai and Andre Dirrell. The rematch of their controversial first fight peaked at 807,000 viewers. The event was delayed for almost 20 minutes due to an irregularity in Uzcategui’s urine sample. The New York State Athletic Commission decided to let the event continue.
Payout Perspective:
Deontay Wilder’s star continues to grow and his fight with Ortiz showed his resolve to come back from almost being knocked out. Wilder-Ortiz was the best fight of the night and Showtime won a rare head-to-head with HBO Boxing which featured Sergey Kovalev.
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