Even while up against college football and with the unusually late start time, the latest installment of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on FS1 boasted a dedicated audience which stuck through the entire telecast which extended well into early Sunday morning.
The Sept. 21 quadrupleheader played to a combined average of 350,000 viewers across Fox Sports’ linear platforms. The FS1 portion alone averaged 282,000 viewers, with another 68,000 tuning in on Fox Deportes.
The near three-hour telecast was topped by a thrilling super middleweight heat which saw Alfredo ‘El Perro’ Angulo resurrect his career with a 10-round split decision win over former middleweight titlist Peter ‘Kid Chocolate’ Quillin. Their main event battle averaged 325,000 viewers on FS1, peaking at 340,000 viewers according to Nielsen Media Research.
Although the night didn’t all end the way Quillin had hoped, it still produced a far more conclusive ending than his last outing—along with a wider audience. The Brooklyn-based former titlist fought to a two-round No-Contest versus former 168-pound titlist Caleb Truax this past April, a card which averaged just 181,000 viewers, the second-smallest PBC audience under the new contract.
Saturday’s card was the fourth-largest dating back to the Jan. 13 debut of the rebranded series, which posted a network-best 761,000 viewers. On that show, unbeaten super middleweight Caleb Plant claimed his first major title in dethroning Jose Uzcategui over 12 rounds, with their bout peaking at 986,000 viewers.
The aforementioned clash between Quillin (34-2-1, 23KOs) and Truax was to produce an official mandatory challenger for Plant, as was their scheduled rematch which was due to take place Aug. 31 live on Fox’s flagship station. Those plans were scrapped when Truax suffered discomfort from a lingering injury, forcing him to withdraw from the card.
Quillin resurfaced on the Sept. 21 show versus Mexico’s Angulo (26-7, 21KOs), who rallied strong over the second half of the contest to score his second straight win and perhaps his most significant victory this decade. Both wins have come under the Fox Sports banner, having scored a 2nd round knockout of Colombia’s Evert Bravo in a preliminary bout to an April 20 PBC on Fox show topped by former welterweight titlist Danny Garcia’s knockout win over Adrian Granados.
As a whole, the telecast posted a 13% increase above the FS1 average for telecasts under the current long-term agreement between PBC and Fox Sports. Interestingly, viewership vastly increased from its relatively weak lead-in, a Major League Baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Indians, which averaged just 171,000 viewers—and fortunately ended in time for the PBC telecast to run uninterrupted.
Preceding the main telecast, a lead-in preliminary card on FS2—which also featured four bouts—averaged 73,000 viewers.
The in-ring action was part of a loaded Fox Sports weekend dedicated to boxing. The bulk of the remaining coverage centered around the forthcoming Pay-Per-View headliner between welterweight titlists Errol Spence (25-0, 21KOs) and Shawn Porter (30-2-1, 17KOs) this Saturday at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif.
Separate Fox-aired showings of PBC Fight Camp: Errol Spence Jr. vs. Shawn Porter drew 971,000 viewers on Saturday and 1.7 million viewers on Sunday. The latter showing immediately trailed live network coverage of NFL Football, with the majority of markets watching the Dallas Cowboys—a huge supporter of PBC boxing—beat the Miami Dolphins.
A special Sunday afternoon installment of Inside PBC Boxing on Fox averaged 791,000 viewers.
Kicking off the Sunday sports day, Porter made a guest appearance on Fox NFL Sunday, the network’s long-running hit pre-game series. His segment was part of a show which averaged 4.817 million viewers.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
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