Rios/Alvarado II March 16th

[PHATV]

1.2 million viewers for this fight. Same as Bradley vs Prov.

Not doubting you,but that's hard for me to believe

Could be Tim/Ruslan made it pop by everyone jabbering about potential FOTY or whatever during the work week?
Kind of a residual effect from that one?

 

[XCuTioNeR]

by David P. Greisman

The March 30 card featuring the rematch between Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado in the main event sold 4,515 tickets and had another 675 given away for free, according to figures provided by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. A total of 5,537 tickets went unsold.

(The announced attendance on fight night was 5,418.)

The nine-fight card

 

[The Batkilt]

I was surprised too. I don't think it can simply be explained away with fans losing interest in Bradley over the Pac decision. This was a well known name in a fight of the year and it only even peaked at 1.4 million? These are Maidana numbers right here.

This time I'm especially wary of the source since it was released by a twitter page I'm not familiar with who said "as per HBO's press release" when HBO haven't actually made any press release. However, the fact that there hasn't been a press release is as good a sign as any too in itself.

I've always wondered if there are guys out there who wait for HBO to stay silent just so they can jump in saying they have a source who said such and such. It's like Front Row Brian and his saw off shotgun reporting, make enough claims citing your "source" and one is about to land. Get it wrong - just shrug your shoulders and say oh well that's the game.

I still don't get why you find it so hard to believe that Bradley's fight with Ruslan didn't draw a bigger number. Bradley wasn't exactly getting much higher viewing figures for his HBO fights when he was taking on guys like Alexander, and the general consensus is that he got a robbery win over Pacquiao - in a fight that wasn't particularly enthralling. I just don't see why you'd think that would suddenly generate a massive rise in viewership numbers. Over 1 million for an HBO card is considered a decent number these days.

If anything, it's a very healthy number considering Ruslan was unknown to the casual audience.