Making Mexican television history, TV Azteca and Televisa will both air the Canelo vs. Chavez, Jr. event live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 6 in celebration of the Cinco de Mayo weekend. It will be the first time that both stations carry a main event featuring Mexican fighters.
Lara (28-0-2, 20 KOs), from Guadalajara, was last seen scoring the biggest victory of his career in April 2016, when he destroyed multiple world champion Fernando Montiel in one round at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. The powerful southpaw was able to drop Montiel four times before the fight was waived over at 1:37 of the opening three minutes.
BAY AREA, CA - Unbeaten super-lightweight prospect, Mario Barrios (18-0, 10 KOs), is back in the Bay Area, CA, training with coach Virgil Hunter. After scoring a TKO in his last bout on March 4th, Barrios returns to the gym, motivated to get back in the ring.
Lou DiBella doesn’t believe HBO’s decision to broadcast less boxing thus far in 2017 has anything to do with AT&T purchasing Time Warner, HBO’s parent company, last year. The outspoken promoter, a former HBO Sports executive, is certain that HBO’s shortage of live boxing broadcasts this year is the consequence of a decline in boxing ratings in recent years for the premium-cable network. During a recently released podcast with Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Mannix, DiBella dismissed the theory among boxing industry insiders who’ve speculated that AT&T’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner has prohibited HBO Sports from airing as much boxing as it did even last year.
NEW YORK – Stephen Espinoza would’ve loved to have been able to tell reporters Thursday that Showtime has secured the U.S. television rights to air the Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko heavyweight championship showdown. The Showtime executive still hasn’t been told by promoters of that April 29 fight, though, if Showtime or HBO has been chosen as the American television partner for that huge event.
Two weeks ago at Madison Square Garden in New York City, former middleweight world champion Andy Lee returned to the ring and picked up a decision win on the Gennady Golovkin vs. Daniel Jacobs undercard. It was Lee's first fight since losing his WBO middleweight crown to Billy Joe Saunders in December of 2015.
David Lemieux delivered a highlight-reel knockout Saturday night, but the former middleweight champion’s dramatic victory over Curtis Stevens didn’t deliver great ratings. According to figures released by Nielsen Media Research, the Lemieux-Stevens fight drew a peak audience of 672,000 viewers for HBO on Saturday night. An average of 606,000 viewers watched Lemieux-Stevens, which ended in the third round when Montreal’s Lemieux’s picture-perfect left hook knocked Brooklyn’s Stevens unconscious at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.
It's been a strong 2017 for Showtime Sports in regards to their boxing franchise. They have featured an attractive slate of fights which have produced solid ratings for the network. And they are continuing to add more fights to their upcoming schedule for the spring.
Last weekend's bout at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York - which featured the welterweight unification bout between Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia - was one that did big television ratings, peaking at over five million viewers and averaging at 3.74 million (https://www.boxingscene.com/thurman-garcia-fight-peaked-51m-viewers-averaged-374m--114381).
By Keith Idec - The Keith Thurman-Danny Garcia ratings were so impressive network television executives must take notice. That much appears clear. A boxing match televised in prime time on free TV hasn’t drawn a peak audience of 5.1 million viewers or an average audience of 3.74 million viewers since 19...