Hurd-Lara Drew Higher Ratings for Showtime Than Joshua-Parker

[Ruthless-RKO]

Jarrett Hurd and Erislandy Lara didn’t start fighting until 12:43 a.m. ET on Saturday night.

That didn’t stop them from producing higher ratings than the heavyweight title unification fight Showtime televised the previous Saturday. Nielsen Media Research ratings released Tuesday revealed viewership for Hurd-Lara, the main event of Showtime’s tripleheader from Las Vegas, peaked at 521,000.

The average audience for Hurd-Lara was 490,000. Unbeaten British superstar Anthony Joshua’s unanimous-decision win against Joseph Parker was watched by a peak audience of 379,000 and an average audience of 346,000 on March 31.

That heavyweight championship unification match began at 5:51 p.m. ET, long before prime time. While airing that early in the United States created a ratings disadvantage for the Joshua-Parker bout, Hurd-Lara began unusually late for East Coast viewers.

[Best Coast]

Jarrett Hurd and Erislandy Lara didn’t start fighting until 12:43 a.m. ET on Saturday night.

That didn’t stop them from producing higher ratings than the heavyweight title unification fight Showtime televised the previous Saturday. Nielsen Media Research ratings released Tuesday revealed viewership for Hurd-Lara, the main event of Showtime’s tripleheader from Las Vegas, peaked at 521,000.

The average audience for Hurd-Lara was 490,000. Unbeaten British superstar Anthony Joshua’s unanimous-decision win against Joseph Parker was watched by a peak audience of 379,000 and an average audience of 346,000 on March 31.

That heavyweight championship unification match began at 5:51 p.m. ET, long before prime time. While airing that early in the United States created a ratings disadvantage for the Joshua-Parker bout, Hurd-Lara began unusually late for East Coast viewers.

Wow...so much for AJ's following in the US!!

[gilgamesh]

It's the Time Zone thing. A lot of people ain't looking for Boxing to be on in the Afternoon. I've never heard of Hurd or Lara being particularly popular.

[jamamb]

ajs never really had a us following, he needs to fight in the us to make that happen. if they want to build wilder-joshua in the us joshua should go to the us and fight someone like jarrell miller first.

ppl estimating aj-wilder would do 1.5m ppvs in the us but thats nonsense

wilder and joshua combined in there last fights on showtime did not even that on average, and that obviously wasnt ppv

[Ruthless-RKO]

ajs never really had a us following, he needs to fight in the us to make that happen. if they want to build wilder-joshua in the us joshua should go to the us and fight someone like jarrell miller first.

ppl estimating aj-wilder would do 1.5m ppvs in the us but thats nonsense

wilder and joshua combined in there last fights on showtime did not even that on average, and that obviously wasnt ppv

A fight vs. Miller in the US will still be a PPV in the UK, despite it being 4am.. he's still get revenue from these shores. Maybe not as much but he will.. but AJ vs. Miller should not be a PPV in the US. He'll be on primetime and will need to attract as many fams as he can.

Wlad averaged well over in the US. Hos fight vs. Jennings did around 1.7m average on HBO.

[asdfjkl]

Sounds like Wilder numbers, was the AJ fight PPV as well?

[caldo2025]

I do agree that the two ratings are tough to compare because of the time zones but it's still impressive. Hurd and Lara were going against a UFC card too Saturday night too. That Lara/Hurd fight was the best fight i've seen in many years so it deserved more viewers. Joshua-Parker may have been one of the worst fight i've seen in many years.

[Ruthless-RKO]

I do agree that the two ratings are tough to compare because of the time zones but it's still impressive. Hurd and Lara were going against a UFC card too Saturday night too. That Lara/Hurd fight was the best fight i've seen in many years so it deserved more viewers. Joshua-Parker may have been one of the worst fight i've seen in many years.

You don't watch many boxing fights I take it? I admit, it was a good scrap.. For Lara, definitely his best fight.

[SFW]

AJ vs Parker was quite underwhelming, borderline shitty. They both performed less than expected neither impressed or improved. For more people to choose watching Lara the insomnia killer over a HW unification says plenty.

I'm glad Swift-Lara fought like true warriors, wish all the heavyweights would.

[jamesmcdonnell]

Are people really this fornicating stupid?

The Joshua fight was on UK time, meaning it was mid afternoon in most of America.

[jamesmcdonnell]

ajs never really had a us following, he needs to fight in the us to make that happen. if they want to build wilder-joshua in the us joshua should go to the us and fight someone like jarrell miller first.

ppl estimating aj-wilder would do 1.5m ppvs in the us but thats nonsense

wilder and joshua combined in there last fights on showtime did not even that on average, and that obviously wasnt ppv

I don't think anybody is claiming that Joshua has a big following in the US, the fact that Wilder can't draw flies to shit in the US is more of an issue.

Joshua gets 80,000 people to buy tickets to his fights every time.

That's not been seen by a british fighter that I can recall in my lifetime.

If Wilder comes to the UK, he's going to get a slice of a bigger purse than he will in the US, even with the venue adding to the pot, there's no way they will do better figures. PPV numbers I anticipate would be fairly low, neither fighter is a huge draw in the US. They may even be better off putting it free to air.

[jamesmcdonnell]

Jarrett Hurd and Erislandy Lara didn’t start fighting until 12:43 a.m. ET on Saturday night.

That didn’t stop them from producing higher ratings than the heavyweight title unification fight Showtime televised the previous Saturday. Nielsen Media Research ratings released Tuesday revealed viewership for Hurd-Lara, the main event of Showtime’s tripleheader from Las Vegas, peaked at 521,000.

The average audience for Hurd-Lara was 490,000. Unbeaten British superstar Anthony Joshua’s unanimous-decision win against Joseph Parker was watched by a peak audience of 379,000 and an average audience of 346,000 on March 31.

That heavyweight championship unification match began at 5:51 p.m. ET, long before prime time. While airing that early in the United States created a ratings disadvantage for the Joshua-Parker bout, Hurd-Lara began unusually late for East Coast viewers.

A lot of people are going to stay up late to watch boxing, it's a nighttime sport.

Nobody on the west coast would have tuned into the Joshua bout, way too early in the day.

[SenorPipino]

Jarrett Hurd and Erislandy Lara didn’t start fighting until 12:43 a.m. ET on Saturday night.

That didn’t stop them from producing higher ratings than the heavyweight title unification fight Showtime televised the previous Saturday. Nielsen Media Research ratings released Tuesday revealed viewership for Hurd-Lara, the main event of Showtime’s tripleheader from Las Vegas, peaked at 521,000.

The average audience for Hurd-Lara was 490,000. Unbeaten British superstar Anthony Joshua’s unanimous-decision win against Joseph Parker was watched by a peak audience of 379,000 and an average audience of 346,000 on March 31.

That heavyweight championship unification match began at 5:51 p.m. ET, long before prime time. While airing that early in the United States created a ratings disadvantage for the Joshua-Parker bout, Hurd-Lara began unusually late for East Coast viewers.

A lot of people are going to stay up late to watch boxing, it's a nighttime sport.

Nobody on the west coast would have tuned into the Joshua bout, way too early in the day.

I think the balance here is that while Joshua-Parker was telecast at an unusual late afternoon time in the US, which contributed to low numbers, Lara-Hurd was very late in the populated eastern time zone. About 1 a.m.

Now you Brits may be accustomed to watching major bouts in the middle of the night. But Americans, who traditionally loath boxing, seldom would stay up that late to watch the sport. Especially a fight featuring two guys who really have no following.

So the Lara-Hurd numbers are very impressive.

[jamesmcdonnell]

Jarrett Hurd and Erislandy Lara didn’t start fighting until 12:43 a.m. ET on Saturday night.

That didn’t stop them from producing higher ratings than the heavyweight title unification fight Showtime televised the previous Saturday. Nielsen Media Research ratings released Tuesday revealed viewership for Hurd-Lara, the main event of Showtime’s tripleheader from Las Vegas, peaked at 521,000.

The average audience for Hurd-Lara was 490,000. Unbeaten British superstar Anthony Joshua’s unanimous-decision win against Joseph Parker was watched by a peak audience of 379,000 and an average audience of 346,000 on March 31.

That heavyweight championship unification match began at 5:51 p.m. ET, long before prime time. While airing that early in the United States created a ratings disadvantage for the Joshua-Parker bout, Hurd-Lara began unusually late for East Coast viewers.

A lot of people are going to stay up late to watch boxing, it's a nighttime sport.

Nobody on the west coast would have tuned into the Joshua bout, way too early in the day.

I think the balance here is that while Joshua-Parker was telecast at an unusual late afternoon time in the US, which contributed to low numbers, Lara-Hurd was very late in the populated eastern time zone. About 1 a.m.

Now you Brits may be accustomed to watching major bouts in the middle of the night. But Americans, who traditionally loath boxing, seldom would stay up that late to watch the sport. Especially a fight featuring two guys who really have no following.

So the Lara-Hurd numbers are very impressive.

Most people in the UK dont follow boxing either. Joshua is very very unusual in popularity. Are the Lara hurd numbers that unusual? Ive not got much to guage them agsinst as im only really familiar with US PPV numbers. I would strongly suspect however that boxing has far more support in the midwest, west coast, arizona and new mexico than the eastern seaboard with the exception of NY city which has traditionally been a hotbed of boxing.

[Best Coast]

A lot of people are going to stay up late to watch boxing, it's a nighttime sport.

Nobody on the west coast would have tuned into the Joshua bout, way too early in the day.

I think the balance here is that while Joshua-Parker was telecast at an unusual late afternoon time in the US, which contributed to low numbers, Lara-Hurd was very late in the populated eastern time zone. About 1 a.m.

Now you Brits may be accustomed to watching major bouts in the middle of the night. But Americans, who traditionally loath boxing, seldom would stay up that late to watch the sport. Especially a fight featuring two guys who really have no following.

So the Lara-Hurd numbers are very impressive.

Most people in the UK dont follow boxing either. Joshua is very very unusual in popularity. Are the Lara hurd numbers that unusual? Ive not got much to guage them agsinst as im only really familiar with US PPV numbers. I would strongly suspect however that boxing has far more support in the midwest, west coast, arizona and new mexico than the eastern seaboard with the exception of NY city which has traditionally been a hotbed of boxing.

Other than Illinois and a few other states the Midwest is not big on boxing. Since no TV numbers are available on a state-by-state basis (or even a regional basis) the best gauge of boxing's popularity in states/regions would be numbers of live shows:

New York, Pennsylvania (especially Philly) and New Jersey are traditionally big boxing states.

California and Nevada in the west. Florida & Texas in the south. SoCal a lot more so than Northern Cali.

Florida, Jersey, Pennsy & New York are all in the Eastern Time Zone. Eastern seaboard states have much higher black populations. Cali, Texas & Nevada have much higher Latino populations and having lived in Florida, Texas & Cali I can safely say just like black fans are more likely to watch/follow black fighters, Latino fans are more likely to watch follow Latino/Hispanic fighters. American blacks would not be more likely to have an interest in AJ just because he is black (unless he had built a fanbase here first) because he is an overseas fighter. Lara, on the other hand, is essentially an American fighter. He has fought his entire pro career in the US, calls himself "The American Dream" and wears stars & stripes trunks

THE most popular overseas fighter in US history is clearly Manny Pacquiao and it took him 5+ years of campaigning in the US to win a large multi-racial, cross-cultural fan base. The win over Oscar in 2009 really put Pac over the top in terms of global/US popularity. Although a HW like AJ would not have to campaign in the US 5+ years (just by virtue of his size & HW status) it will probably take 4-5 fights here to build a significant fan base. Hatton fought here 9 times and Khan 10 times and I dont think either of them had a very significant US fanbase.

Although 551pm Eastern time is not prime time it as right after dinner and only an hour or so before prime time. I would say the 551 start time for AJ-Parker is just as viewer-friendly as the 1243am Eastern start time for Hurd-Lara, maybe even a little moreso. So basically I'm saying the unusual start times CANCEL EACH OTHER OUT and the viewership figures for BOTH fights can be taken at face value.

I live out west now and it is not the least bit unusual for a NYC fight card to start at 600pm Pacific time. So I dont think 551 Eastern is all that early for a boxing fan (just as 1243am is not that late for a boxing fan).

[Mexi-Box]

Al Gaymon is a horrible promoter/manager, whatever the hell you want to call him. Those ratings suck.