The Sports Business Journal recently put out its “Fight Issue” which gave a rundown on the most-watched boxing matches from April 2013 to April 2014.
The top 6 according to the list compiled by SBJ:
- October 5, 2013 – Miguel Cotto vs. Delvin Rodriguez – HBO – 1.55M
- September 28, 2013 – Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. vs. Bryan Vera I – HBO – 1.42M
- November 2, 2013 – Gennady Golovkin vs. Curtis Stevens – HBO – 1.41M
- March 1, 2014 – Adonis Stevenson vs. Tony Bellew – HBO – 1.4M
- June 22, 2014 – Adrien Broner vs. Paulie Malignaggi – SHO – 1.28M
- December 14, 2013 – Adrien Broner vs. Marcos Maidana – SHO – 1.28M
Notably, the bulk of fights scoring high on the list were from HBO with only 3 Showtime events hitting the top 20. NBC had one appearance with the Steve Cunningham-Tyson Fury fight on April 20, 2013 delivering 1.2M viewers for the duration of the broadcast.
Of the top 20, 19 of the events hit at least 1 million viewers for the main event of the card.
Payout Perspective:
Remember when we said Boxing was dead? It is not. In fact, the competition between Golden Boy/Showtime and HBO/Top Rank has helped fight fans see some competitive fights and more of them. The one drawback for economic-conscious fans is that there are more PPVs in addition to the amount one would pay for the premium channels of HBO and Showtime.
That’s because the first ESPN boxing card was an unmitigated disaster ratings-wise. The heavyweight title fight between IBF/WBA/WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko and challenger Alex Leapai from Germany on April 26 attracted just 468,000 viewers.
The card began at 5 p.m. ET and attracted nearly a million fewer viewers than ESPN typically averages in that time slot. ESPN’s normal rating at 5 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon is 1.4 million.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/boxing/klitschko-title-defense-bombs-in-ratings-on-espn-with-nearly-a-million-fewer-viewers-165921011.html
Average Viewers 623,000
Omar Figueroa vs Jerry Belmontes 545,000
Lucas Matthysse vs John Molina 748,000
Keith Thurman vs Julio Diaz 835,000
http://www.boxingscene.com/thurman-diaz-sho-triple-produces-lukewarm-ratings–77288
That’s because the first ESPN boxing card was an unmitigated disaster ratings-wise. The heavyweight title fight between IBF/WBA/WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko and challenger Alex Leapai from Germany on April 26 attracted just 468,000 viewers.
The card began at 5 p.m. ET and attracted nearly a million fewer viewers than ESPN typically averages in that time slot. ESPN’s normal rating at 5 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon is 1.4 million.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/boxing/klitschko-title-defense-bombs-in-ratings-on-espn-with-nearly-a-million-fewer-viewers-165921011.html
Too bad UFC ratings have generally been PISS poor this year
Are the Golden Boy shows on FS1 still getting like 10k viewers?