BoxRec

Crawford-Brook Bout Peaked At 2,078,000 Viewers On ESPN

Terence Crawford’s fourth-round technical knockout of Kell Brook was watched by more viewers Saturday night than his previous ESPN appearance.

Nielsen Media Research viewership figures released Tuesday indicated ESPN’s Crawford-Brook main event attracted a peak audience of 2,078,000 from MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas. An average of 2,029,000 viewers watched the Crawford-Brook bout, a WBO welterweight title fight that lasted only 13 minutes and 14 seconds.

Crawford’s prior ESPN fight, a ninth-round stoppage of mandatory challenger Egidijus Kavaliauskas, drew an average audience of 1,481,000 last December 14 from Madison Square Garden in New York. The peak viewership of that telecast came in the opener of a tripleheader, when 1,648,000 tuned in to watch the early portion of Michael Conlan’s 10-round, unanimous-decision victory over Olympic rival Vladimir Nikitin in a featherweight fight.

ESPN’s entire average for its two-bout broadcast, which spanned two hours and four minutes Saturday night, was 1,758,000.

That marked the highest average viewership for a boxing broadcast on ESPN since a show headlined by Vasiliy Lomachenko’s TKO defeat of Guillermo Rigondeaux drew an average audience of 1,730,000 in December 2018. The Lomachenko-Rigondeaux telecast also benefited from ESPN’s Heisman Trophy ceremony coverage that immediately preceded it.

ESPN’s telecast of the Teofimo Lopez-Vasiliy Lomachenko lightweight title unification fight peaked at 2,898,000 viewers and averaged 2,729,000 on October 17 from MGM Grand Conference Center. That whole telecast averaged 1,534,000 viewers on ESPN, but it lasted five hours and 47 minutes, much longer than the Crawford-Brook broadcast.

Crawford’s 12th-round stoppage of Jose Benavidez Jr. was Crawford’s most-watched fight that aired live on ESPN since the network entered an exclusive content partnership with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., Crawford’s promoter, in June 2017. Crawford-Benavidez drew a peak audience of 2,800,000 and an average audience of 2,245,000 in October 2018 from CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska, Crawford’s hometown.

Makes sense that this fight would draw more viewers than Crawford's last one. Brook is a much bigger name than the Lithuanian challenger.

The peak viewing figures for the Brook fight are 26% down from the equivalent numbers achieved by the Benavidez bout, which took place a month after Crawford signed his contract extension with Top Rank.

On a side note, Vasyl Lomachenko's viewing figures have increased over the same timeframe (i.e. since 2018)... and he has the same promoter and network that Crawford uses.

Despite the combined total guaranteed minimum purses being 27% less than the equivalent sums being paid to Crawford & Brook, the peak viewership for the Lomachenko-Lopez bout was 39% bigger.

These are statistical facts that no one can deny, but it’s up to you to decide how to interpret them.

On a related note (i.e. viewing figures), Katie Taylor's bout last weekend attracted 2,877,000 views from the UK and Ireland, surpassing the figure achieved by the Crawford-Brook fight by 848K.

Does anyone feel people may have switched off due to the whole headbutt crap..

That 40 mins can easily put people off, casuals don't wanna wait around..

Best Coast wrote: ↑17 Nov 2020, 22:43Brook is a much bigger name than the Lithuanian challenger.

In some ways. Not in others. I know whose name I'd prefer to try and say before I put my false teeth in. Kell Brook v Egidijus Kavaliauskas.