The HBO broadcast of Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. versus Bryan Vera Saturday night scored an subscriber audience average of 1.39 million viewers with a peak of 1.53 million according to Nielsen Media Research via Boxing Scene.
The rematch between the two has made it one of the biggest audiences for either HBO or Showtime in the last 12 months. The first fight in which Chavez was handed the decision earned an average viewership of 1.4 million. The September 2013 fight was the second highest of 2013 on HBO as June 2013’s Miguel Cotto-Delvin Rodriguez fight earned over 1.5 million viewers.
Notably, the undercard fight between Orlando Salido and Vasyl Lomachenko did remarkably well as it averaged over 1 million viewers.
Payout Perspective:
Chavez looked much better this go round with Vera and based on the ratings, he’s one of the major draws for HBO/Top Rank. The interesting thing about the great ratings is that the actual attendance was low for the Alamodome in San Antonio (approximately 7,000). The attendance was newsworthy enough that the broadcasters made reference to it and the fact that Chavez was partly to blame for his lack of promotion as well as his effort in the last fight with Vera.
I was a fan of Salido’s before this fight. That he didn’t even try to make weight and bought his way out of having to for $15k is disgusting. He used his substantial size advantage (~11lbs) to pressure and hammer a classy fighter in Lomachenko and then celebrated his win like it meant something. It was disrespectful to the sport and I’m glad that we was stripped of his title. I think for his next fight Lomachenko should get another shot at that title against someone else.
I guess Salido learned from his fight with Mikey Garcia that if you’re going to lose your title anyway you might as well win the fight.
@Diego – Its funny that you bring up Mikey Garcia b/c I just watched HBO’s “2 Days” with him as he lost his title on the scale.
WOW 1.4 million for a second rate fight imo. Dana would blow Done King for those numbers lol
saladthief,
I agree that the fight is second rate (Vera is not in the same league as Chavez), but Chavez is still one of the top draws in boxing, despite his recent issues. And you knew the fight was going to be exciting.
Canelo v. Angulo is also a 2nd rate fight (Angulo is not in the same league as Canelo), but Canelo is one of the top draws and the fight is going to be exciting, so again, that fight should do well.
I was never sold that Chavez was AAA fighter. I think he’s a second rate fighter with a name. 7,000 in the seats says a lot