ESPN’s Dan Rafael tweeted the ratings from this past Saturday’s HBO Boxing event which featured Sergey Kovalev-Blake Caparello and Brandon Rios- Diego Chaves. Notably, the Kovalev fight drew the highest viewership on Saturday.
Kovalev-Caparello drew 990,000 viewers and was the 8th most viewed US fight this year and peaked at 1.052 million. The actual main event of Rios-Chaves drew 936,000 viewers with a peak of 1.003 million. The Rios-Chavez fight was the 14th most watch US fight this year.
The first fight of the broadcast featured Jessie Vargas as he beat Anton Novikov. The average for that fight was 728,000 with a peak of 839,000 viewers.
Payout Perspective:
The Rios-Chavez fight ended in a controversial DQ in favor of Brandon Rios while Kovalev knocked down Caparello three times in the second round for a TKO. Maybe the rumored Bernard Hopkins fight (which became a reality after the fight) was the reason more people tuned into his fight than the Rios-Chavez matchup. Yet, it is still rare that viewers watch the fight before the main event but not the main event. Regardless, Kovalev now has the big fight that he wanted and it’s against B-Hop this fall.
A non american getting good ratings in the u.s. Global truly global
For me the Kovalev fight could have been the headliner instead of Chavez-Rios. I feel like it would have been except for the timing – Kovalev was fighting on the East Coast and Rios-Chavez was west coast so it made sense to do the Kovalev fight and then send it out west for the “main event”.
I’m glad to see Krusher getting some traction with American fans. He’s another fighter everyone is ducking. I’ve lost some money betting against B-Hop but I can’t see him pulling off the upset here. It will be a big matchup and I’m glad that Stevenson who ducked Kovalev and was apparently dragging his feet at having to fight B-Hop is now out of the picture.
Boxing is a global sport….having a solid year in the u.s. good year for boxing,pac,mayweather,canelo,cotto etc….all fighting before the year ends…ggg,broner as well
@tops E Who said boxing wasn’t global?
Look at Topps E, he’s desperate!!! He’s a sinking ship!! HAHAHAHA!!!
Jesse,
TOPS is a troll a child minded anti UFC shit bag.
According to the ratings the viewers lost interest in the fights. Typical of a boring one dimensional sport with an uneducated short attention span fan base.
Yea that short attention span that has had fans attention for 200 years bahahahah
A million views for a shit fight on pay cable. Bernard Hopkins, who has a reported net worth of 40 million. VS Sergio Kovalev will be massive! But I guess no one is paying attention lol
another pink pig clan member i bet they all have sleep overs
Pay cable is the key. People watch it to get their money’s worth. Everything gets ratings. People tends to stay on the channels because they pay extra. It is t because people care about boxing. Even Strikeforce did good numbers and they hada shitting product with no known fighters.
Boxing constantly has good numbers weekend after weekend in around a million at times way over … sport is alive and well
Hahaha….dw is desperate letting dc due for surgery to fight…dillashaw barao immediate rematch hahahaha….anderson ordered to fight right away…ronda suppose to fight immediately but rogan had a slip up
Sinking ship hahaha
Mayweather would buy the ufc soon at a sale price haha..salvaged ship price
SaldaQUEEF, Bernard Hopkins makes a fraction these days of what he made a decade ago. The guy is 50, semi retired and no one watches his side show fights.
Nice try dummy.
Look at Topps squirm!! He’s desperate!!!! He’s a sinking ship!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!
Bhop has never gotten beat up embarrassed or destroyed actually won last 2 impressively most his Ls are disputable … and he just won title dropped the guy …bhop kovalev Is symbolic fight .. us boxing and mma fans should know it is
BS,
People didn’t lose interest. They were more interested in the Kovalev fight to begin with. That always should have been the main event. It was a championship fight with the winner fighting B-Hop for a unification bout. The Rios-Chaves fight was going to be exciting but not really meaningful. Rios had lost his previous two fights.
I have never turned an mma event off before the main event. There is no excuse. Real boxing fans would have not tuned out with another match getting ready to start. It would be different if these ratings were beyond their peak numbers. But at under 1 million the numbers should have kept climbing. Also if the co main event was worth a damn. The word of mouth during the fight would have brought people in and the excitement of the fight would have kept them for the next fight. A drop like that is never good and there is never an excuse for it. Boxing doesn’t have many fighters who headline a HBO or Showtime or PPV event. So this headline wasn’t bums. Logically this would be a top 20 or 30 match up for the year. If that doesn’t keep people watching then Boxing has a problem.
D is speaking out his sphincter once again, so boring and not even interesting posts by d. BS you could be right as far as people wanting their money’s worth, but I doubt you or anybody can read the minds or intent of 1 million boxing fans. B hop still holds the attention of a lot of fans and press. And thanks D we all know how old he is. There is nothing worse than a pathetic show either Boxing, MMA or NFL for that matter. Oh and D B hop pisses on any UFC fighters pay at any time since the UFC was invented even at 50 so once again you have a mouth full of your own poop!
Jesse is correct a symbolic fight that will do decent numbers like most of B hops fights for the last 20 years ouch thats a long career!!
SaldaQUEEF can’t resist spewing his bullshit.
You are such a moron. Hopkins does not make what the top mma fighters make. You are delusional.
Proving once again that you are still sucking Arum’s dick you little bitch.
keep dreaming D bahaaaa not even close
SaldaQUEEF ladies and gents!!