The Heavyweight title fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Tyson Fury on HBO Saturday scored over 1 million subscribers according to Sports TV Ratings. The replay of the Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez fight later that night drew 901,000 HBO subscribers.
The live event from Germany between Klitschko and Fury drew 1.038 million viewers between 5:19pm and 6:08pm ET on Saturday. The post-fight from 6:08pm to 6:20pm drew 987,000 viewers. The replay later that night which included the Cotto-Canelo drew an additional 676,000 viewers.
The replay of Cotto-Canelo drew 901,000 viewers between 11:50pm-12:38am ET.
The preliminary fight between Takashi Miura and Francisco Vargas which preceded the Cotto-Canelo fight on HBO drew 772,000 viewers.
This past April, Klitschko drew 1.6 million subscribers on HBO, the largest viewership for HBO Boxing since 2012.
Payout Perspective:
The Canelo-Cotto replay ratings were decent for a very good fight. The ratings for the live event are very good for a Saturday afternoon fight on HBO. Notably, the live airing of Klitschko-Fury was second in cable sports for the time slot. Only the Penn St.-Michigan St. game on ESPN drew more viewers with 4.5 million per Sports TV Ratings. The ratings for a Saturday afternoon reflects the popularity of Klitschko despite his boxing style.
If they promote Tyson fury …he would be a heavyweight attraction…a character
For a Klitschko fight those are pretty good ratings, and what is even better is that there is new life in the HW division. Klitschko was a great champion who hadn’t lost in over a decade, but he wasn’t the most exciting fighter.
“This past April, Klitschko drew 1.6 million subscribers on HBO, the largest viewership for HBO Boxing since 2012.”
Canelo-Kirkland did over 2.3 million on May 9th, on HBO
How is that good ratings when it was almost half what his last fight was? Given his position in boxing this should have been able to get to the same 1.6 range or bust on it. To lose than much interest when he should be gaining interest with such a long reign is not good.
The good news for boxing is, due to the corrupt nature of the sport, boxing will be able to give the belt to a more exciting fighter. One who couldn’t beat Klits. Fury looks like crap and won’t hold the belt long. With match making they will be able to get the belt to someone marketable who will then duck Klits for a few years until he is old and washed up or retires.
Terrible ratings for two boxers with big name recognition. Goes to show how bad the sport is right now from a ratings position. Boxing’s HW division has been dead for over a decade and will probably never recover.
Klitschko Fury was on in the afternoon. If you didn’t have certain cable providers you had to wait until the replay to see it.
If it was on all cable providers, it probably would’ve done 1.7M.
But it was good numbers.
Remember last Klitschko fight on the afternoon on HBO did around 650K.
His afternoon fight on ESPN a year ago did 450k.
So this is definitely good.
Rematch will be in the UK and will probably do 2M on HBO.
By the way does the UFC even have a HW division?
I dont even know who their champion is. Is it King Mo or something?
Biggest draw for ufc was a wwe star, let that sink in.
Reports are coming out that Canelo-Cotto did 950k and that the official announcement will come out later
Reports are coming out that Canelo-Cotto did 950k and that the official announcement will come out later
Hahahaha. The level of crazy from the weakest is on a whole new level. He’s stalking me like no one I’ve ever seen. Get this guy some meds…asap!
Klitschko-Fury….poor showing. Boxing HW division dead.
UFC has hw ppvs all the time. When was the last US HW boxing ppv? Ten years ago?
HAHAHAHA!!!
Sissy Fan, the biggest draw in UFC history is about to go down in less than 2 weeks. Also that WWE star would be the biggest draw in boxing if he went there right now. Let that sink in.
@danrafael
Official #CottoCanelo PPV numbers released by HBO: 900,000, which is impressive. Slightly more than I predicted. #boxing
More than any UFC ppv this year. UFC 193, still no numbers yet.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Delusions.
UFC 190 Rousey vs Correira…..900k
UFC 193 Rousey vs. Holm………1.2-1.3m
UFC 194 will do well over 1m buys.
Boxing needed two big ppv names and still couldn’t break 1m buys. Once Mayweather was gone, boxing ppv dropped drastically. No more 1m plus ppvs for boxing. HAHAHAHA!!
Official numbers only please
There are no official numbers for either sport.
Provide for me one case of an official number with the buys tallied and accounted for anywhere publicly for any major boxing promotion.
Mayweather-pacquiao.
I counted them my self.
4.6M
HAHAHAHAHA!!! Delusions of grandeur.
Boxing should spend more on media exposure on tyson fury in the u.s…..tv talkshows is the way…this guy is entertaining, unpredictable and has the shock factor….that batman stunt was original,he rants on his self belief like mc gregor(and since his 6-9 and won the belt people would now listen),he also sings
http://espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/post/_/id/14649/klitschko-fury-draws-strong-u-s-audience…..klitscko last fight on the same time slot is 600k…so this was a good number hahaha
Tyson Fury has the potential to be the biggest heavyweight attraction in the 21st century. Hes too big and talks way to much to be anything but the biggest and highest paid boxer. Hes 3-4 wins away from being a blockbuster ppv attraction.
Tyson Fury has no potential for ppv success, he had a poor showing with the biggest name in hw boxing for the last 10 years. US HW boxing ppv is dead.
The problem with Fury is that he’s a loose cannon in all the wrong ways. McGregor is funny, Fury is just sad. His whole “Jesus” thing is played out, and his views on things are actually scary if you’re unfortunate enough to have to listen to him. He’s not going to get traction in the US unless he changes his routine.
The best thing about Fury is he’s beatable by an American HW – certainly Wilder if he plays it smart, maybe even Jennings. If that happens, popularity in the division will explode. American fans are just waiting for an good HW to bring the titles home.