Comments Thread For: HBO March 5 Doubleheader Averages 740,000 Viewers

[Pigeons]

those are mma fans you idiot and most of them don't give a **** about boxing free or not.

Exactly, so don't excuse low ratings by saying there was a UFC PPV airing the same night.

[BrometheusBob.]

vargas ali was a good fight man

Yeah that's true, I'm just tight that Ortiz fought this old bum and next up is a guy who has fought nothing but low level journeymen and a washed up david tua since getting smacked up by Pulev in 2012.

I mean Ortiz/Ustinov isn't the worst fight ever but I mean, how on earth did Ustinov get around to being the mando for the interim belt any dam way? Did his incredible 2015 with fights against fighters who were 22-14, 26-19 and 39-13 (the latter coming off of 6 back to back losses) really sway the WBA? His 2015 makes Charles Martin's 2015 look ****ing impressive.

[CaneloMaidana]

those are mma fans you idiot and most of them don't give a **** about boxing free or not.

You're using the ufc as an excuse but than say they don't care about boxing. Typical Golovkin fan.

[TBear]

Those numbers aren't bad considering Showtime ran a show too Saturday night and the mma show was one of the biggest cards they had this year. HBO subscribers also can watch the fight later during the week.

[MC Hammer]

Those numbers suck no matter how you try to spin it.

Doesn't mean they won't try

[j0zef]

HBO Cards through March are pretty bad. There's a couple of decent scraps that wont get great viewship (Ward/Barrera, Blackwell/Eubank). Starting April 9th, things really pick up though!

[MC Hammer]

Showtime pulling these ratings is the real problem
Williams-Matano 311K
Douglas-Khurtsidze 278K

HBO put out a cheap Boxing After Dark card where the headliner Ortiz actually did better ratings then his Boxing After Dark fight last year. And far greater ratings then Showtime got for Wilder a month or so ago which did 500k. Wilder was paid far more then Ortiz was paid yet HBO got better ratings. HBO put a cheap card that performed about average for Boxing After Dark fights (their cheapest of all boxing programming on HBO) I don't see where the shock is. Showtime on the other hand had fallen off a cliff. They went from competing head to head with HBO just over a year ago to now they are getting less then 50% in ratings. Their viewership is not slightly down it's completely left them. Cards that used to get 800k are getting 200k. Cards that were getting at or over 1m ratings are getting at or lower 500k.

Pointing out SHO doing bad doesn't mean that HBO is doing great. The real culprit here is PBC. Boxing is on network TV now; no need for a subscription to watch a good fight. The market is more saturated so people such as myself can watch fights here and there instead every freakin fight that comes on.

[al-Xander]

It did better than the Santa Cruz card, which was a paltry 290K.

Showtime is dead.

[Mitchell Kane]

Those numbers aren't bad considering Showtime ran a show too Saturday night and the mma show was one of the biggest cards they had this year. HBO subscribers also can watch the fight later during the week.

That's true. Which is why comparing live audience numbers on a broadcast channel like NBC to HBO isn't really apples to apples.

HBO replays the fight several times on HBO, HBO2, HBO Latino from Sunday morning to early Wednesday morning and the fights are also put On Demand.

[LOCOMEX89]

Ortiz is improving his numbers and will probably have his mandatory on the Canelo undercard to gain more exposure.

HBO and Golden Boy will push Ortiz hard this year. The thing is after his mandatory they will have to work extremely hard to get a big name in the ring with him. That will be he challenge.