ESPN’s Dan Rafael tweeted out the top live, first-time airings of boxing events for 2014. Notably, the top 10 are all HBO events.
- Chavez-Vera 2 (HBO) 1.39M (peak 1.53M)
- GGG-Rubio (HBO) 1.304M (peak1.323M)
- Crawford-Gamboa (HBO) 1.208M (peak 1.286M)
- Marquez-Alvarado (HBO) 1.198M (peak 1.322M)
- Donaire-Walters (HBO) 1.088M
- Provodnikov-Algieri (HBO) 1.017M
- Salido-Lomachenko (HBO) 1.017M
- Kovalev-Agnew (HBO) 1.006M (peak 1.048M)
- Postol-Aydin (HBO) 1.002M (peak 1.1M)
- Kovalev-Caparello (HBO) 990,000 (peak 1.052M)
- GGG-Geale (HBO) 984,000 (peak 1.048M)
- Pascal-Bute (HBO) 982,000
- Garcia-Herrera (Showtime) 972,000
- Stiverne-Arreola 2 (ESPN) 940,000
Payout Perspective
We note that these television ratings are for the fights only and not the entire block of time. A couple of the HBO events had two fights in the top 14. Notably, Donaire-Walters were the semi-main event for GGG-Rubio. Also, Salido-Lomanchenko were on Chavez-Vera 2. Also interesting is that NBC Sports Network and the quarterly fights held on Saturday on NBC did not crack the top 14. It had previously scored over 1 million viewers for its Saturday afternoon events.
Chang says
How does that compare to UFC ratings?
d says
Not as well.
Jason Cruz says
@Chang Without a huge dive into it, d is correct. Two interesting things to take note. 1) the average boxing viewership is only based on the HBO/Showtime subscribers. Obviously, the ESPN fight had a broader base of potential viewers. 2) There are more UFC/Bellator events on cable so its hard to make a conclusion that boxing is more popular than MMA (although I’m sure there will be discussion here about this). If you look at the list, you’ll notice that the top boxers head the list. One need only look to Bellator’s main event last Friday to see that its not the case in MMA.
tops E says
Diego sanchez fight scrapped……refund from mexico? hahahahaha
tops E says
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2014/10/22/7040405/ufc-vs-bellator-king-mo-says-dana-white-behind-fan-hypocrisy-jones-vs-cormier-presser-mma-news
Good article…describes ufc fanboys not thinking for themselves hahaha
d says
tops smells like dog shit.
BrainSmasher says
I don’t think the subscriber base for HBO and Showtime are an excuse to not have comparable ratings. Those networks have always been Boxings home for like 20 years. You can’t be a boxing fan and not have atleast one of those networks. So the idea they would get significantly better ratings on regular cable I feel is inaccurate. For every would be viewer that would stumble apon boxing and boost ratings on cable. HBO has people watching its programs exclusively just because they pay extra for it and want to get their monies worth. So they get non boxing fans that way that wouldn’t happen on regular cable. Bellator is getting the same ratings as Strikeforce was getting on Showtime. With the same fan base and demo graphic. No one was arguing Strikeforce would do 2 million if not on Showtime. But boxing loves that excuse to appear relevant.
tops E says
2 fanboys comment hahahaha
d says
25 aliases hahahaha
saldathief says
Decent numbers and the peak is very close to the actual. Very different then UFC MMA.It shows that Boxing fans are roughly 1 million dedicated fans and if you look at UFC MMA numbers,it shows less than a million supporting weekly fans. Boxing having an ok year and new stars are rising up, as always. UFC playing the excuse and blame game, so amateur. Funny how they don’t report the DVR numbers on boxing, oh I know why, Boxing doesn’t need the BULLSHIT DVR NUMBER SPIN RATING BOOST!
Boxing would double the UFC this year even without all the injuries, lets be serious the Cain fight would only do 300k or so anyhow and now it will do even worse. Still waiting for UFC 178 ppv numbers. I guess making people wait will make the numbers better hahahahahaha UFC is drowning with bad luck and no back up plans.
BrainSmasher says
Boxing fans are to old to operate a DVR. Also you are comparing top 10 boxing events of the year to 20th ranked UFC events. A comparable MMA even to the boxing is on PPV and has a couple million watching atleast. Boxing can’t sell more than 5 PPV a year. So of course their 6th best card that can’t sell on PPV is better than the UFC’s 15th.
d says
Sal is as intelligent as someone with Down Syndrome.
tops E says
Brainwashed by dw hahaha…no mind of theyre own hahaha
d says
25 different personalities…………..hahahahahaha
Pink Pig says
Since all of the UFCaca focus is on the “international” market… why don’t we compare their numbers to what boxing does internationally?
Did the UFC do anything even remotely close to Froch-Groves 2 in Europe?
tops E says
http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-ufc-cung-le-hgh-epstein-macao-20141023-story.html
article on wrong ufc drug testing……the ufc is such a cheapskate it went to a local non wada laboratory in china for its testing hahahahHa….then they do a hype on theyre doing tests for ped problem hahahaha…..need money to pay loan