A close and controversial fight involving one of boxing’s biggest names delivered the sport’s top cable audience in more than a decade.
Saturday’s Jeff Horn–Manny Pacquiao WBO World Welterweight Championship earned a 1.6 rating and 2.8 million viewers on ESPN, per Nielsen fast-nationals — marking the most-watched boxing telecast on cable since 2006.
It was also ESPN’s highest rated boxing match since 1995.
The match also had 206,000 on ESPN Deportes, that network’s top boxing telecast in two years. Including the streaming audience of 79,000 on WatchESPN (78K for ESPN’s coverage and 1K for the ESPN Deportes feed) the telecast attracted 3.1 million viewers.
To put the numbers in perspective, the television audience exceeds all-but-three Premier Boxing Champions cards and all of this year’s UFC broadcasts.
[Numbers from ESPN PR 7.3]
