Showtime’s viewership increased Saturday night for its broadcast of Brandon Figueroa’s knockout of Luis Nery. Nielsen Media Research reported Tuesday that an average of 221,000 viewers watched Showtime’s main event from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The average viewership for the Figueroa-Nery fight was higher than the prior main event Showtime televised.
By Corey Erdman - When people discuss the problems with modern boxing matchmaking, the most common complaint is that the best fighters aren’t matched up against one another as regularly as they should be. In the current boxing landscape both promoters and networks lay exclusive claim to entire rosters of fighters. Without wholesale structural change to the sport, greater goodwill amongst competing promoters, or simply fully agnostic networks dangling monetary carrots to produce big matchups, there will always be fights that aren’t made at the exact time we would hope they would be —if they’re made at all.
The red hot Jr. featherweight division is center stage for what could be a fantastic scrap. 26-year old Luis Nery (31-0, 24 KO) defends the WBC belt against 24-year old Brandon Figueroa (21-0-1, 16 KO), who holds a WBA sub-title already, in a fight that should be excellent at even half its potential.
Ken Burns is reentering boxing’s storytelling ring, and it’s another iconic heavyweight who’s his muse this time around. The acclaimed documentarian will debut a four-part, eight-hour documentary on PBS chronicling the life of Muhammad Ali, the television program distributor announced.
Erislandy Lara registered one of the quickest knockouts of his career in his most recent bout, though still struggling to resonate with home viewers. The 38-year-old Cuban export flattened overmatched Thomas ‘Cornflake’ LaManna in the 1st round of their Fox-televised bout, which aired live May 1 from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The win for Lara came as part of a three-fight telecast which averaged 636,000 viewers according to Nielsen Media Research. The show peaked at 726,000 viewers, occurring near the end of a televised swing bout featuring 18-year-old Guadalajara-based lightweight Fernando Angel Molina (6-0, 3KOs) in a six-round shutout win over Prisco Marquez (4-3-1, 1KO).
Programming covering Mike Tyson’s tumultuous life and career is very much still in demand in 2021. ABC News became the latest entity on Monday to jump into the ring looking to tell the story of the “Baddest Man on the Planet” when it announced “Mike Tyson: The Knockout,” a two-part, four-hour documentary series scheduled to air on back-back-back Tuesdays on May 25 and June 1 from 8 to 10 p.m. EST.
One week after filing a nine-figure lawsuit against online piracy offenders, Triller Inc. is now offering amnesty for a limited time ahead of its next event. A one-month clemency period has been granted by Triller to any parties who illegally streamed the April 17 Triller Fight Club Pay-Per-View event. Triller previously targeted 12 specific hosting sites and 100 unnamed parties in a massive lawsuit seeking damages in excess of $100,000,000 from more than 2,000,000 viewers alleged to have pirated the aforementioned show.
Pick It: TBRB #1 Moruti Mthalane vs. Sunny Edwards (Friday, ESPN, 2:00 PM EST) - Heavyweights will dominate the headlines this weekend but this could end up being the most interesting fight of the weekend. If it isn’t, it still features one of the most interesting fighters of his time. How good is IBF flyweight titlist Moruti Mthalane (39-2, 26 KO)?
ESPN’s audience grew Saturday night as knockout artist Edgar Berlanga was extended the distance for the first time as a pro. Nielsen Media Research released data Tuesday that indicated an average of 803,000 viewers watched Berlanga’s eight-round points victory over Demond Nicholson on Saturday night. Viewership peaked at 829,000 toward the end of Berlanga’s unanimous-decision victory over Nicholson at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida.
The vow from Triller Fight Club to serve as a disruptor in the boxing industry has now extended into online piracy. Triller Inc. has launched a nine-figure lawsuit seeking damages from streaming websites FilmDaily.com, CrackStreamsLive.com and at least 10 specified outlets as well as 100 unnamed parties. The 20-page complaint—a copy of which was obtained by BoxingScene.com—was filed on Friday with the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, alleging the illegal distribution of its April 17 Pay-Per-View event headlined by a cruiserweight bout between YouTube star Jake Paul and mixed martial artist Ben Askren.