Cotto-Kamegai Peaked at 805K Viewers, Averaged 730K on HBO

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Even in direct competition with a pay-per-view extravaganza, boxing fans tuned in to watch Miguel Cotto’s return to the ring.

According to ratings released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research, HBO’s broadcast of Cotto’s victory over Yoshihiro Kamegai drew a peak audience of 805,000 viewers on Saturday night. An average audience of 730,000 watched Cotto’s 12-round, unanimous-decision win.

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The Cotto-Kamegai match ended before Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s technical knockout of Conor McGregor began because pay-per-view ordering glitches caused the start of Mayweather-McGregor to be delayed by about a half hour.

Cable and satellite customers in certain parts of the United States had difficulty ordering the Showtime Pay-Per-View broadcast that featured Mayweather-McGregor. Mayweather acknowledged after his victory that he and McGregor remained in their dressing rooms until the potentially costly issue was resolved.

Mayweather-McGregor was expected to negatively impact Cotto-Kamegai ratings because at least portions of the fights were expected to air simultaneously.

The Cotto-Kamegai bout ended at approximately 11:45 p.m. ET/8:45 p.m. PT at StubHub Center in Carson, California, about 20 minutes before the delayed start of Mayweather-McGregor at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Puerto Rico’s Cotto, 36, fought for the first time since losing a unanimous decision to Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez in November 2015 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Cotto (41-5, 33 KOs) won the vacant WBO super welterweight title by out-boxing Japan’s Kamegai (27-4-2, 24 KOs) in their 12-round championship match (120-108, 119-109, 118-110).

HBO’s telecast began Saturday night with Rey Vargas’ victory over Ronny Rios in a 12-round, super bantamweight bout. Vargas-Rios was watched by a peak audience of 687,000 viewers and attracted an average viewership of 524,000.

Mexico’s Vargas (30-0, 22 KOs) out-pointed Rios (28-2, 12 KOs), of Santa Ana, California, by scores of 118-110, 118-110 and 115-113 to retain his WBC 122-pound championship.

The Vargas-Rios telecast also directly competed with part of the Mayweather-McGregor undercard.

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

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Comments

Don_PichardoWed Aug 30, 2017, 4:17 AM UTC

There are far more write offs for businesses than personal income. Especially when your talking about millions. This is nothing new multiple fighters do this. That is true. In know I own a business. Write you help you though that the common misconception. All the write off does is not cause you to pay taxes on the amount you write off. You can only legally write off business expenses. Ie advertising for example. You pay for the advertising let's say 10k. You write it off and don't pay tax on the 10k a tax savings of 3k(depending on tax bracket). So I just spent 10k to save 3k on taxes. I'm out 7k. I'd rather pay the 3k tax and pocket the 7k. Only way I'll pay the 10k is if I really need it for my business. I'm not about to open a business solely just to write stuff off. That's nuts. Don't take it from me. Read the tax code yourself. Don't rely on some scammer of a tax adviser sell you on write off so he can collect extra fees in preparing the extra forms. Meanwhile yiur taking it in the ***. Trust me. Been there down that.

KnickTillDeaThWed Aug 30, 2017, 3:55 AM UTC

Problem with yiur analysis is that one can't avoid the tax consequence. Funneling money through the promotional company only places the tax burden on the promotional company. Cotto owns the company so Cotto pays the taxes one way or the other. It helps with paying with timing of taxes but ultimately there is no where to run to and nowhere to hid from taxes. There are far more write offs for businesses than personal income. Especially when your talking about millions. This is nothing new multiple fighters do this.

Don_PichardoWed Aug 30, 2017, 3:53 AM UTC

This is most likely false. One of the main reasons Cotto left Rocnation is because he refused to fight for less than $10 million. More than likely Cotto worked out a deal with GBP similar to Mayweather, where the bulk of the money he is paid goes though Cottos promotional company, which means he saves major taxes because his income for the fight is reported as 750k as opposed to 10 million. GBP wouldn't pay the entire thing, HBO would put in, with a guarantee that Cotto fights a big fight next on HBO, which they have done multiple time through out his career. This is a far more likely scenario. Problem with yiur analysis is that one can't avoid the tax consequence. Funneling money through the promotional company only places the tax burden on the promotional company. Cotto owns the company so Cotto pays the taxes one way or the other. It helps with paying with timing of taxes but ultimately there is no where to run to and nowhere to hid from taxes.

Don_PichardoWed Aug 30, 2017, 3:38 AM UTC

First you clowns said nobody would buy tickets to this they did it sold out. Then you said nobody would show up. Yet by the time the main event started that placed look jam packed on TV. Then you said nobody would watch it on HBO and that it would do alltime worst ratings. Yet it drew 730K viewers more then every showtime boxing card this year but Broner vs Garcia and more then Lomachenko just drew on ESPN with wall to wall coverage. Now you making excuses. You idiots were wrong can't you just say that and keep it moving. :pat: Word. Haters gonna hate. But damn they try to earn their phd's on Cotto.

KnickTillDeaThWed Aug 30, 2017, 3:24 AM UTC

Exactly roc nation paid him 5m buyout they were originally co-promoter for this fight. He got 5M signed with golden boy and made this same fight without roc nation. So really he just made 5.75M for this fight. 750K is just the money golden boy paid roc paid the rest. Like an NBA player on last year of his deal gets bought out half way into the season gets huge balloon payment and signs for the league minimum to join another team for the remaining months of the season. This is most likely false. One of the main reasons Cotto left Rocnation is because he refused to fight for less than $10 million. More than likely Cotto worked out a deal with GBP similar to Mayweather, where the bulk of the money he is paid goes though Cottos promotional company, which means he saves major taxes because his income for the fight is reported as 750k as opposed to 10 million. GBP wouldn't pay the entire thing, HBO would put in, with a guarantee that Cotto fights a big fight next on HBO, which they have done multiple time through out his career. This is a far more likely scenario.

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Cotto-Kamegai Peaked at 805K Viewers, Averaged 730K on HBO

After Terence Crawford Feud, Are Sanctioning Bodies Bad For Boxing?

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