Comments Thread For: Kovalev-Mohammedi Cracks One Million Viewer Mark

[JakeNDaBox]

Sergey Kovalev continues to struggle as a box office draw, but remains one of the most watched fighters on cable television. Proof on the latter is found in the unified light heavyweight titlist’s recent 3rd round knockout win over mandatory challenger Nadjib Mohammedi.

The July 25 HBO-televised averaged just north of 1 million viewers (1.014 million) over the course of less than nine minutes of ring action. The number is down from his past two bouts, which is to be expected. However, it fared better than a similarly (mis)matched bout around this time last year, when his 2nd round knockout of Blake Caparello played to less than 1 million homes. [Click Here To Read More]

[King_]

Damn KOvalev truly is a star. I honestly feel blessed to be able to "watch him work" live on Saturday nights on HBO.


War Krusher anyone?

[Eastcoast]

This time of year HBO boxing always sees a dip in their numbers.

[The Big Dunn]

Not much intrigue or drama when its a 45-1 favorite. Broke 1 mil which is good.

[Deevel916]

He draws more on a premium cable channel than other fighters do on free network tv.

[bigdunny1]

strong ratings for HBO. They are having a banner year so far in the tv ratings. The actual fight attendance was hurt by PBC putting on a fight in vegas at the same time where they were reportedly giving tickets away for free. But overall a win for Kovalev. The ratings aren't out for the PBC BJ Flores fight but I'm guessing they were terrible.

[_original_]

Good numbers for a complete mismatch. Pascal-Gonzalez was a surprisingly good fight but that bad decision just stunk.

[From Russia]

Pretty good, considering it was a fight between a russian and some french bum.

[bigdunny1]

He draws more on a premium cable channel than other fighters do on free network tv.

So true. For example this outdid the ratings last week on CBS for the Frampton fight. A fraction of the PBC budget and on free network tv no less.

[Cuban Linx]

I'm shocked it did over 1M. The fight was an absolute mismatch, even on paper. Yet the fact that it did over 1M tells you that Kovalev has a lot of momentum behind him and the fans enjoy watching him fight regardless of opponent.

Hopefully this doesn't give them an excuse to fight lower level opponents. You want to look a situation like this as a gift and still strive to fight top guys.