By Cliff Rold
The biggest rating for a live boxing match in the US in 2013 was HBO’s airing of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Brian Vera II.
Chavez has a lot going for him. His name ID is high. He’s been part of a profitable pay-per-view. He attracts tons of eyes from the rabid Latino fan base. Chavez was a carefully constructed project for years with several HBO appearances by the time he got to the Vera fight.
A known commodity.
That rematch, at peak, did around 1.5 million homes.
Last weekend, Deontay Wilder-Bermane Stiverne didn’t quite hit that number. As reported here at BoxingScene , it peaked at 1.34 million homes. Like Chavez, the new WBC Heavyweight titlist Wilder (33-0, 32 KO) was a carefully constructed project.
Unlike Chavez, his name ID wasn’t particularly high. That’s even considering a Bronze Medal Olympic run in 2008.
He’s never been a pay-per-view headliner.
He’s been lightly promoted to date.
Stiverne was the first serious top ten Heavyweight he’d faced.
The house was rumored to be heavily papered.
The weigh-in was lightly attended.
And in one night, Wilder almost matched the highest rating for a fight in the previous year.
This is why some in US fight circles and in the US press have so adamantly wanted a draw in the Heavyweight division again. They know what history has told us many times over.
Boxing in the States in never bigger than it is when the big men catch fire.
It’s true outside the States as well.
Is there another fighter in Europe who can regularly do packed stadium shows besides Wladimir Klitschko? He’s made a habit of it.
This market will embrace great smaller men. Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, and Oscar De La Hoya succeeded Sugar Ray Leonard as sub-Heavyweight revenue generators of the highest level. The audience for the sport hasn’t exploded under any of them. They have been kings as the overall boxing market has gradually declined.
Box office Heavyweights for sure.
Just not the box office and total audience potential actual Heavyweights are.
When Mike Tyson came out of prison in 1995, Fox televised his second fight back against Buster Mathis Jr. According to the LA Times , that fight did 43 million viewers. The last premium cable card to do more than 2 million live homes was Vitali Klitschko-Chris Arreola. In 2003, according to the Associated Press , the elder Klitschko challenging Lennox Lewis did 4.6 million homes.
Things haven’t been like that for Heavyweights in the US for some time. Numbers have varied. The Steve Cunningham-Tomasz Adamek rematch on NBC in 2012 peaked at over 3 million homes. Wladimir Klitschko, matched with the right foes, pulls good audiences in the US sometimes. His last fight with Kubrat Pulev did well as a live day/repeat evening broadcast. Last year’s Stiverne-Arreola rematch was disappointing at less than a million viewers but was ESPN’s most watched fight since…
…a Heavyweight eliminator between Ray Austin and Sultan Ibragimov.
And in his first serious fight, Deontay Wilder winning just the paper title in his division (the real champ is Wlad, period) produced the sort of rating that should excite any US fan.
It’s not that 1.34 is a great rating. It’s not. It might be good for boxing in 2015 but compared to any discerning TV standard, it’s pretty paltry.
It’s not as bad as something like “Girls” on HBO, but it’s not great either.
What the number represents is possibility.
Wilder performed well enough in his first spotlight fight. It wasn’t a barnburner from bell to bell. It didn’t have to be. It was competitive, well paced, and featured two punchers landing some bombs.
It was a start.
With his advisor Al Haymon now owning dates on broadcast television in prime time for the first time in forever, it’s an important start. With his win over Stiverne, Wilder might just have emerged as the most important fighter in US boxing.
So far, he’s got the ingredients to be different than the last decade of US Heavyweights. Like Arreola, he has power. Unlike Arreola, there is never a question about whether he’s in shape. Eddie Chambers and Tony Thompson were the best of the bunch in recent years. Wilder has the combination of speed, power, and personality neither of them did.
The sport is engaged in the never-ending quest to find what is often referred to as the ‘casual viewer.’ What that means, in the most basic sense, is the viewer who might not watch boxing but can be enticed with the right hook.
The non-customer who can be cultivated into a paying part of the cult of fistiana.
Wilder scoring a knockout or two where everyone can see him is a big step towards the sort of fights, and attention, where riches are made.
There’s a reason ESPN Classic replays Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson ad nausea with literally thousands of other hours of footage to choose from.
Those oldies still get more eyeballs.
This might be the land of Robinson, Armstrong, and Leonard.
It’s still the land of Dempsey, Louis, Ali, Foreman, Tyson, and Holyfield first.
Those who want to see Wilder challenge Klitschko are likely to be disappointed for the time being. Before we can get to a fight, there is an attraction to be built.
Last Saturday was just the first brick.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
