Promoter Bob Arum said the ratings numbers for his summer series aren’t as bad as some might think.
The Top Rank shows, which started June 9, haven’t had large viewership on ESPN. The first show, featuring Shakur Stevenson, averaged 397,000 (609, 000 peak), according to Nielsen Media Research. The second show averaged 311,000 (392,000 peak), the third did 350,000 (503,000) and the fourth did 305,000 (382,000).
Arum discussed the ratings with BoxingScene.com.
“The ratings I thought were very good for the first show,” he said. “For the second show, not so good. For the third, the numbers were pretty good. But again, the ratings with an ESPN show does not tell the whole story because not included in those ratings are ESPN Deportes, which probably does at least half, if not 60 percent of the [viewership] that ESPN does. All of ESPN Deportes’ audience is Hispanic, and a lot of them choose to listen [in Spanish] and watch on ESPN Deportes.
“Secondly, unlike a Showtime show and unlike even a Fox show, the number of people who watch ESPN in bars and restaurants is enormous. You go into many bars and restaurants – not high-end restaurants, but, you know, good restaurants – they always have ESPN on. And therefore, hundreds of thousands of people are watching the fights in bars and restaurants. So, the fact that [the] number of people who are watching on ESPN through Nielsen appears sort of low, it doesn’t account for people who watch outside of their homes, away from their televisions sets.”
Staging the cards has been difficult beyond coronavirus-related precautions. Arum mentioned the challenges of matchmaking at this time.
“When we first kicked this off, Bruce [Trampler] and Brad [Goodman] were having terrible problems trying to make fights,” Arum said. “They’d call up managers from all over and they said, ‘Oh, we’d love to be on the show. But our fighters aren’t ready. They haven’t been in the gym.’
“I mean, that is the reason why it’s been so difficult, because a lot of these kids were locked down, they couldn’t get into a gym, there were no gyms open and that sort of stuff. So, to make matches in that sort of environment is really a hell of a lot of work. People ask, ‘How come they weren’t matched with better opponents?’ Well, there weren’t any better opponents.”
The series resumes tonight (Tuesday) on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. Andrew Moloney (21-0, 14 KOs) faces Joshua Franco (16-1-2, 8 KOs) in a 12-round junior bantamweight fight in the main event. The show starts at 8 p.m. ET.