Beterbiev vs. Gvozdyk on ESPN draws 635K viewers

[Citizen Koba]

They got the Football lead in. It peaked at the beginning of the broadcast.

Top Rank Boxing telecast averaged 635,000 viewers on Friday night. A reasonable figure considering the competitive landscape. Telecast peaked with 778,000 viewers at the initial tune-in.

— BrooklynBrawler1970 (@BklynBrawler05) October 21, 2019

So. What do you think they should be doing to improve matters? Or is this like, just one of those threads I notice you tend make about the failings of PBCs competitors on a fairly regular basis?

[2ndroundko]

So. What do you think they should be doing to improve matters? Or is this like, just one of those threads I notice you tend make about the failings of PBCs competitors on a fairly regular basis?

promote the fights maybe

[sicko]

Decent Ratings in this ERA and considering how this fight wasn't promoted AT ALL

Boxing is just not as popular as other sports in America, it is something boxing fans are in complete denial about. Women Softball Championships gets better Ratings than now in American

[Rhonda Drowsy]

Hugh Jackman's stuntman doesn't bring #'s color me shocked

[paulf]

Considering that they are both very highly touted, undefeated LHW champs and this was a unification, it really discredits your status as a hardcore boxing fan, if you even consider yourself one.

It happened to fall onto my wedding weekend but even then, I don't have cable and I feel like ESPN 2 is in much fewer households these days.

Was hoping it would have been on ESPN+, I might have been able to catch some of it or at least watch a replay of it.

Discredits my "status" as a "hardcore boxing fan?" That, my friend, is a hilarious statement.

I've been watching the fights nearly every weekend for over thirty years. Neither of those fighters have caught my interest, so the matchup didn't interest me. Do you watch straw-weight unifications just because they're unifications?

It did worse than Brant-Bysangurov, despite being on earlier in the night and having a college football lead in. No one cared about this fight.

[LetOutTheCage]

None of the UK broadcasters picked this fight up which didnt help...

[glenn mcrory]

Look Im all for having the best(better) fighters competing, but you have a US deal directed at an US audience, you gotta give these people what they want.

To understand the US market, you have to look at what makes waves here.
US tv waves are dominated by ldbc ball sports, which makes sense considering the main reason people watch those sports.
You notice the ones who follow boxing only follow like two weightclasses?
Jeez, I wonder whats going on in the rest that makes them not watch...

PBC shows regularly do more regardless of show simply because they follow this one rule.

Top Rank’s do not.

Crawford’s fights always do great and Lomachenko’s highest ratings fight was Rigondeaux moving up two weightclasses.

The sooner Top Rank understands that most of the US audience are cuckolds, the better it will be for their viewership numbers.

[_Rexy_]

What a shame. It was a fantastic fight.

[A.K]

It’s unbelievably horrible this was the best Friday night fight of all time

[Citizen Koba]

promote the fights maybe

I ain't from the US so I've no idea what the promotion was like. Was it really that lacking or non existant?

Hmm. Whatever you think of him ol Bob does know how to sell a fight so if there was no promotion he either couldn't (and the only obvious reason would be lack of funds) or chose not too (figured the return wouldn't be worth the investment or that the funds could be better invested elsewhere). I'd suspect the latter given that Arthur only came to him recently and he's never invested particularly heavily in Gvozdyk... Would have cost a lot to get two foreign fighters in the public attention at short notice for few extra viewers was possibly the calculation. Who knows though? I'd be interested to hear other theories.