Dan Rafael via twitter reports that Saturday night’s HBO fight between Jean Pascal and Bernard Hopkins received 1.8 million viewers making it the most watched HBO fight since 2009.
Payout Perspective:
Very good ratings for this fight. Of course, there was bad blood between the two and BHop, despite his fighting style, can sell fights. So, the high ratings may have been expected. Yet, with the recent uptick in fights on HBO and Showtime, we could see a resurgence in boxing on television. Also, for HBO, its a good sign since it lost Pacquiao.
Its also interesting that the same night Bellator scored the second highest ratings of its season. This seems to indicate that Bellator can co-exist (or should we say compete) with other programming. Might be different if it came up against a UFC PPV or Fight Night.
Just shows that both sports can co-exist and thrive.
I’m really glad you guys are covering boxing more, keep it up please.
I really hope that these promoters are serious when discussing moving big boxing fights back to the big broadcast networks. That would really get the sport back in the limelight.
That’s hardly impressive for a title fight on free TV.
Free TV?