Where Was the Protest? Garcia-Salka Draws 808k Viewers
For all of the complaining that was done by fans and media alike regarding Showtime’s August 9 tripleheader from Brooklyn, the ratings hardly suggest a mass protest. Ratings were hardly spectacular for a show that was loaded with undesirable matchups, but the average of 612,000 viewers for Saturday’s show from Barclays Center was a slight increase from Showtime’s overall average for the 2014 boxing season. The main event saw lineal super lightweight Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia score a 2nd round knockout of Rod Salka in a non-title fight. Salka was moving up more than two weight classes for the fight, having last fought just above the super featherweight limit in an upset win over Alexei Collado this past April in a Shobox-televised headliner. Garcia was dominant throughout the brief affair, which averaged 808,000 viewers and topping out at 850,000 fans (or critics) tuning in to the non-title fight. His previous network appearance—a disputed 12-round win over Mauricio Herrera in March–drew 972,000 viewers, with this fight dropping off roughly 17% from a show that was marketed around his appearing in Puerto Rico for the first time in his career.
