By Jake Donovan
The June 6 edition of
Premier Boxing Champions
(PBC) on NBC—headlined by Robert Guerrero's off-the-canvas, debatable points win over Aron Martinez—on NBC garnered a 0.95 overnight rating.
The show—which aired at 3:00 p.m. ET and 12:00 p.m. locally from StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.—improved 12% from the May 23 edition that aired in a similar time slot, topped by James DeGale's super middleweight title winning effort over Andre Dirrell.
Mismatches were expected to come of both fights, thus the negative backlash heading into the card. The opening bout saw Dominic Breazeale—who served on the 2012 U.S. Olympic boxing team in London—score three knockdowns in a 3rd round blowout of Yasmany Consuerga, also an unbeaten heavyweight but with a paper-thin resume who ultimately proved to be in way over his head.
The main event proved to be a far more pleasant surprise, at least for the first half of the bout. Martinez took advantage of Guerrero's slow start, including a barrage of punches and an eventual knockdown at the end of round four, thus prompting the major threat of an upset.
Guerrero—a former titlist at featherweight and junior lightweight—turned the tide in the second half to pull out the fight. The split decision win helped him avoid career disaster, as well as producing what would certainly landed as the front-runner for Upset of the Year.
Despite the debatable outcome, fans who tuned in were treated to a far more competitive fight than expected. Competition is always a good thing, especially when coming on a loaded sports day.
The latest edition of PBC preceded NBC coverage of the Belmont Stakes—which saw American Pharoah become the first thoroughbred in 37 years to win the prestigious Triple Crown—and Game 2 of the National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup finals.
The card was the fourth installment of PBC on NBC, with the May 23 show serving as the first afternoon telecast on the network following two episodes having aired live in prime time. Guerrero has appeared in two of the four cards on NBC, including the series premiere on March 7 when he lost a 12-round decision to unbeaten welterweight titlist Keith Thurman.
PBC events have also aired on CBS (Saturday afternoons) and Spike TV (Friday evenings), and will debut on ESPN in prime time on Saturday, July 11.
All ratings data provided by
Nielsen Media Research
.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox