The Vasyl Lomachenko ESPN ratings proved a hard sell in his first fight on the mammoth TV network following the new deal.
ESPN, the world’s biggest sports TV company that boasts a gargantuan audience, will likely need to remain patient with their recent voyage back into American boxing.
Both notable US promoters Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank have deals with the company to showcase fights, with the latter perhaps showing more of their top tier talent in the platform in a more full-on play.
Boxing as a sport continues to grow worldwide but a lot will hinge in the US on how both the upcoming Mayweather vs McGregor and Golovkin vs Canelo fights do one would imagine.
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Both for very, very different reasons mind you, but both having important consequences for the sport of boxing nonetheless.
If both were to be entertaining spectacles (at least when it comes to Mayweather vs McGregor) and pull big numbers, likely the US boxing market will grow quite well and ESPN can expect an uplift in their general boxing content ratings overall.
But for now, here’s what the Vasyl Lomachneko ESPN ratings were at the weekend via Mike Coppinger:
Overnight ratings for #Lomachenko-Marriaga on ESPN: 10-12 on ESPN2 pulled about 250K. Main event pulled about 750K. Perhaps switch hurt
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) August 6, 2017
The channel switch might have indeed hurt things, as Coppinger suggests.
It would be interesting to see how a fight involving Lomachenko against Mikey Garcia or Guillermo Rigondeaux would do, however.
One suspects a hell of a lot better than the above, with the Garcia fight a more likely option at this point in time.
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