By Keith Idec
A healthy amount of boxing fans took another long look at the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin fight Saturday night.
According to Nielsen Media Research ratings released Tuesday, the replay of their 12-round draw was watched by a peak audience of 840,000 viewers. An average of 726,000 viewers tuned in to see another airing of their highly competitive middleweight title fight from the previous Saturday night.
The Alvarez-Golovkin fight was televised live by HBO Pay-Per-View on September 16 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. HBO Sports has not yet announced the amount of buys generated by the bout between Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) and Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs).
Regardless, the controversial, compelling nature of their long-awaited showdown should lead to a rematch sometime in 2018.
Judge Adalaide Byrd infuriated fans, media and even the mild-mannered Golovkin by scoring their fight 118-110 for Mexico’s Alvarez. Byrd somehow scored 10 of the 12 rounds for Alvarez.
The two other judges – Dave Moretti (115-113 for Golovkin) and Don Trella (114-114) – submitted scorecards that were much more reflective of what occurred in the ring.
The Alvarez-Golovkin replay marked the start of an HBO “World Championship Boxing” broadcast Saturday night. Later Saturday night, HBO’s lower-profile, live telecast was able to retain much of the audience that watched the Golovkin-Alvarez replay.
Peak viewership for the Jorge Linares-Luke Campbell lightweight title fight was 726,000. Their 12-round fight, which Linares won by split decision, drew an average of 687,000 viewers.
Venezuela’s Linares took control early in their fight and dropped England’s Campbell in the second round. Campbell overcame that trouble to make their fight for Linares’ WBA world lightweight title very competitive at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Two judges – Max DeLuca (114-113) and Zac Young (115-112) – scored the fight for Linares. Judge Victor Loughlin credited Campbell with the victory (115-113).
Linares (43-3, 27 KOs) and Campbell (17-2, 14 KOs) both made their HBO debuts on Saturday night.
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