Top Rank Boxing airing on ESPN Saturday night drew 880,000 viewers according to Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily. The event, which included preliminary bouts to the main event of Sergey Kovalev and Eleider Alvarez, peaked at 1.022 million viewers.
On the network telecast Oscar Valdez defeated Carmine Tommasone via 7th round stoppage. The opening bout featured Richard Comney defeating Isa Chaniev in just two rounds.
The event was bifurcated as the UFC’s debut on ESPN+ was split with prelims on the digital platform followed by the network portion followed by the main event airing once again on ESPN+.
As reported by Boxing Scene, ESPN Deportes averaged 122,000 viewers for the two-fight telecast as it peaked with 169,000 viewers.
Payout Perspective:
Near 1 million viewers tuned in Saturday night for two prelim fights on ESPN. The bookending of the card seems to be aiding its digital platform despite the gamble of confusing the viewer. The move for ESPN to air more combat sports will see an adjustment for the traditional sports viewer but its clear that there is an audience that wants to watch
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