Lopez-Lomachenko Fight Peaked At 2,898,000 Viewers

[Ruthless-RKO]

Lopez-Lomachenko Fight Peaked At 2,898,000 Viewers; Averaged 2,729,000 Million

More viewers watched ESPN’s Teofimo Lopez-Vasiliy Lomachenko fight on Saturday night than any boxing match on American television in more than three years.

According to viewership figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research, the Lopez-Lomachenko main event was watched by an average audience of 2,729,000. Viewership peaked at 2,898,000 toward the end of their 12-round main event, which Lopez won by unanimous decision.

That makes their lightweight title unification fight the most-watched boxing event on U.S. TV since Australia’s Jeff Horn upset Manny Pacquiao in the debut of ESPN’s partnership with promoter Top Rank in July 2017.

ESPN’s telecast of Horn’s surprising, unanimous-decision victory over the Filipino icon peaked at 4,400,000 viewers and averaged 2,812,000.

The entire five-hour, 47-minute broadcast Saturday night averaged 1,534,000 viewers. The telecast started at 7:10 p.m. ET and included six bouts before Lopez’s career-changing victory over Lomachenko.

The Lopez-Lomachenko bout didn’t begin until 11:54 p.m. ET, which makes the viewership it attracted even more impressive. The viewership numbers Nielsen revealed Tuesday don’t include those who watched on ESPN Deportes and ESPN+, both of which offered the entire Lopez-Lomachenko card live as well.

ESPN has approximately 83 million television subscribers in the United States.

Before Saturday night, ESPN’s highest viewership for live boxing in 2020 was the average of 850,000 that watched a one-hour block of Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder undercard bouts before the pay-per-view portion of that show began February 22 from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Boxing’s previous viewership peak since the Pacquiao-Horn bout was 2,765,000 for FOX’s telecast of Keith Thurman’s 12-round, majority-decision defeat of Josesito Lopez in January 2019 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The average audience for the Thurman-Lopez main event was 2,480,000.

Promoter Bob Arum told BS.com before the Lopez-Lomachenko bout that he hoped between two and three million viewers would watch it, even with U.S. television viewership down significantly for all sports in recent months, so that it would encourage ESPN’s decision-makers to air more of Top Rank’s best fights live on the network. ESPN executives considered televising Lopez-Lomachenko on pay-per-view or on ESPN+, its $6-per-month streaming service, but they ultimately decided to televise Lopez’s star-making performance live on the network.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Did the numbers Arum wanted.. and maybe what boxing needed since covid..

TBH, it’s what I thought it would do.

Probably would have done around this much had there been no covid..

[Ruthless-RKO]

We got Crawford-Brook on ESPN too.. probably will do 2m..

Crawford numbers are usually oryt.

[victor-romeo]

Those are very good numbers..

[margaret thatcher]

Big audience to see father of loma's victory

[Cent0089]

Did the numbers Arum wanted.. and maybe what boxing needed since covid..

TBH, it’s what I thought it would do.

Probably would have done around this much had there been no covid..

Agree, good numbers, but how the hell has Thurman - Lopez 2.7 milions too?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Did the numbers Arum wanted.. and maybe what boxing needed since covid..

TBH, it’s what I thought it would do.

Probably would have done around this much had there been no covid..

Agree, good numbers, but how the hell has Thurman - Lopez 2.7 milions too?

Was January 2019 wasn’t it? Thurman has always achieved good numbers on free tv.

CBS, NBC, FOX.

[Cent0089]

Did the numbers Arum wanted.. and maybe what boxing needed since covid..

TBH, it’s what I thought it would do.

Probably would have done around this much had there been no covid..

Agree, good numbers, but how the hell has Thurman - Lopez 2.7 milions too?

Was January 2019 wasn’t it? Thurman has always achieved good numbers on free tv.

CBS, NBC, FOX.

Yeah, but considering Lopez as an oponent that was huge number

[Jeff_lacy_ko]

Yes!!! Make the fights and people watch! Goood victory for boxing

[gregregegg]

I wonder if that makes it a financial success as a stand alone decision.. I’d doubt it, but I wouldent know. Defiantly gets eyes on Lopez though, so they will be cashing in on that choice the rest of his career.

[Onetimeonly]

I'm sure ESPN was pleased with those numbers.

[Puncher7]

great numbers - I think this was expected. Would've been better for boxing had loma not been in his head and opened up more the fight would've been more exciting and all those people who don't normally tune into boxing may have seen a good fight.

[Evander]

Impressive numbers.

Did this fight have a rematch clause ?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Impressive numbers.

Did this fight have a rematch clause ?

No clause.

Doesn’t mean we can’t see it again. If they both want it.

[Evander]

Impressive numbers.

Did this fight have a rematch clause ?

No clause.

Doesn’t mean we can’t see it again. If they both want it.

What Lopez fight would supersede Lomachenko 2 ?
I don't see one.

[bobcatbox]

And no fans on attendance.


_____


At midnight est.

Well-scheduled to avoid college football.

[Onetimeonly]

[JxhDel.]

Dead sport my arse... the rematch will make fantastic numbers, this was a success for Bobfather.