The proof seems to be in the pudding. Santa Cruz was a barnstormer of a fight, and the numbers back it up. The non-title Featherweight encounter, which unfolded at the Staples Center in LA last weekend, drew in the highest ratings for an ESPN fight in 17 years. For all you boxing heads wondering which fight it broke records for, it was Mark Johnson-Arthur Johnson back in February 1998.
The absorbing Santa Cruz-Mares card drew in an average of 1.217 million viewers, with the two hour PBC show peaking at 1.641 between 12:00-12:15am. The card, which also saw scintillating performances in Angulo-Munoz, Ceja-Ruiz and Luna-Lopez, proved more popular than the two PBC cards which aired on ESPN earlier this year. In fact, an impressive 30% (there abouts) more.
This is fantastic news for ESPN, Al Haymon, the fighters themselves, and of course, boxing fans. Anyone who says boxing is dead – forgive us for using this cliché – really isn’t worth listening to. Because it’s pretty likely they didn’t catch this awesome event. Let alone know who was fighting on it.
What do you think of these numbers, fight fans? Was Santa Cruz-Mares the best PBC card – aired on any broadcaster – to date?
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