It’s not a true number. I don’t doubt that it was massive event and maybe even the most watched fight ever. However, no way in hell did half the world back then know who these two boxers were. The hundreds of millions in rural China? In India and Pakistan? Not only that, but there’s no way a lot of them could have watched it live
I did , Wikipedia say it's so but that doesn't mean anything to me. It logically makes no sense. I grew up watching classic boxing matches on ESPN and I didn't even recall that they fought twice. This isn't even one of his top 5 most known fights. Foreman, Frasier, Liston were all more well known. Multiple people can watch on tv and also one person can watch one tv. Sounds like they extrapolated to the point of a large inflation. Interesting that it's easy to find these "statistics" of how watched events were, even though they defy reason, but you can't do a quick search to see how many people had access to a tv in 1978. I'm not buying it. If 2020 has proved anything it's that the media is full of shit.
So how do they calculate number of viewers nowadays accurately?
Yeah i'm not doubting that it was likely the most watched fight either, but apparently Ali-Spinks 2 was watched by even more, which makes all the numbers even more dubious to me.
with TV I thought they took a sample size and created an average, with PPV though I suppose that's easy to add... With Live streaming though I can't imagine any estimates are close in the slightest.
I'm pretty sure most Pakistanis and Chinese knew who Ali was lol
I mean in the UK, TV licensing in 2020 still can't accurately tell if you have a TV in your home without coming into your house.. Can't imagine poor countries have this shit down! lol
I'm not trying to be a dick but I would assume from your avatar you are young, and probably don't grasp how much censorship there was of the western world in many countries, especially China. Hell to this day China hides a ton of western media. The CCP has 80,000 "internet police" that makes sure you aren't getting information that the Communist government doesn't want you to have access to.
I’m not sure that half of China had electricity during Ali’s prime, let alone radios or TVs. It was not a good era in their history. How would a lot of people in these countries have seen it even if they had wanted to?
Good point. I hadn’t even though of the censorship side of it. Ali’s era was during their reducation phase, when censorship would have been at its worst
Haha exactly "quality illegal stream". Even if 2 billion people were around televisions in 1978(which they weren't), good luck getting reception. Hell you had to move the "rabbit ear" antenna around to get reception in the states in the 80's. I was in a foreign country 9 months ago and there wasn't tv where I was staying. Cell phone didn't work either.
s are talking about 2 billion viewers. it is most likely 3 billion.Ali was more than just an athlete. He transcended sports.
I don't understand. Isn't boxing still more popular than MMA? I hear it both ways.
