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HBO Boxing tops events so far in 2014

October 22, 2014 by Jason Cruz 16 Comments

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.

  1. Chavez-Vera 2 (HBO) 1.39M (peak 1.53M)
  2. GGG-Rubio (HBO) 1.304M (peak1.323M)
  3. Crawford-Gamboa (HBO) 1.208M (peak 1.286M)
  4. Marquez-Alvarado (HBO) 1.198M (peak 1.322M)
  5. Donaire-Walters (HBO) 1.088M
  6. Provodnikov-Algieri (HBO) 1.017M
  7. Salido-Lomachenko (HBO) 1.017M
  8. Kovalev-Agnew (HBO) 1.006M (peak 1.048M)
  9. Postol-Aydin (HBO) 1.002M (peak 1.1M)
  10. Kovalev-Caparello (HBO) 990,000 (peak 1.052M)
  11. GGG-Geale (HBO) 984,000 (peak 1.048M)
  12. Pascal-Bute (HBO) 982,000
  13. Garcia-Herrera (Showtime) 972,000
  14. 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.

Filed Under: boxing, Top Rank, TV

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Chang says

    October 22, 2014 at 2:54 pm

    How does that compare to UFC ratings?

    Reply
  2. d says

    October 22, 2014 at 3:07 pm

    Not as well.

    Reply
  3. Jason Cruz says

    October 22, 2014 at 3:25 pm

    @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.

    Reply
  4. tops E says

    October 23, 2014 at 12:40 am

    Diego sanchez fight scrapped……refund from mexico? hahahahaha

    Reply
  5. tops E says

    October 23, 2014 at 4:03 am

    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

    Reply
  6. d says

    October 23, 2014 at 5:21 am

    tops smells like dog shit.

    Reply
  7. BrainSmasher says

    October 23, 2014 at 5:48 am

    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.

    Reply
  8. tops E says

    October 23, 2014 at 1:04 pm

    2 fanboys comment hahahaha

    Reply
  9. d says

    October 23, 2014 at 2:30 pm

    25 aliases hahahaha

    Reply
  10. saldathief says

    October 23, 2014 at 7:09 pm

    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.

    Reply
  11. BrainSmasher says

    October 23, 2014 at 7:22 pm

    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.

    Reply
  12. d says

    October 23, 2014 at 9:44 pm

    Sal is as intelligent as someone with Down Syndrome.

    Reply
  13. tops E says

    October 24, 2014 at 3:18 am

    Brainwashed by dw hahaha…no mind of theyre own hahaha

    Reply
  14. d says

    October 24, 2014 at 6:23 am

    25 different personalities…………..hahahahahaha

    Reply
  15. Pink Pig says

    October 24, 2014 at 8:45 am

    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?

    Reply
  16. tops E says

    October 24, 2014 at 12:34 pm

    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

    Reply

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