Victor Ortiz's KO Win in Comeback Drew Solid Ratings for FS1

By Keith Idec, photo by Ryan Hafey

Victor Ortiz drew respectable ratings in his comeback from a 15-month layoff.

According to ratings released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research, a peak audience of 332,000 viewers watched FS1’s broadcast of the polarizing Ortiz’s fourth-round knockout of Saul Corral on Sunday night from Bakersfield, California.

The peak rating for this basic-cable broadcast was produced toward the end of Ortiz’s win against Mexico’s Corral at Rabobank Theater. The two-hour telecast – which aired early Sunday evening on the East Coast and late Sunday afternoon on the West Coast – drew an average of 262,000 viewers.

The 30-year-old Ortiz (32-6-2, 25 KOs), of Ventura, California, hadn’t fought since fellow former welterweight champion Andre Berto (31-5, 24 KOs) knocked out the powerful southpaw in the fourth round of their April 2016 rematch in Carson, California.

Ortiz dropped Corral with a left hand with two minutes to go in the fourth round. Corral reached his feet, but Ortiz hurt him again and referee Jack Reiss stopped the action at 1:26 of the fourth round.

The telecast also included an action-packed co-feature in which Nathaniel Gallimore (19-1-1, 16 KOs) stopped Justin DeLoach (17-2, 9 KOs) following five action-packed rounds in a junior middleweight match scheduled for 10 rounds. Gallimore, of Evanston, Illinois, dropped DeLoach, of Augusta, Georgia, once apiece in the first and second rounds, but DeLoach came back to make the bout competitive before it eventually was stopped.

Before Gallimore stopped DeLoach, FS1 aired a fan-friendly featherweight fight won by Adam Lopez (8-0, 3 KOs), of Glendale, California, who topped Phoenix’s Paul Romero (7-1-1, 1 KOs) by majority decision in a six-rounder. In the opener of the telecast, 2016 American Olympian Karlos Balderas (2-0, 2 KOs), of Santa Maria, California, knocked out Mexico’s Eder Fajardo (3-4, 2 KOs) with a body shot in the first round of a lightweight bout scheduled for six rounds.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.