HBO Gets Solid Numbers For Marquez-Alvarado

HBO is happy with the number of eyeballs their Saturday night card drew. Here is the release they sent out on Tuesday afternoon.

HBO, the leading television platform for the sport of boxing in the U.S., scored again in the ratings Saturday night as pro boxing made a thrilling return to The Forum in Inglewood, CA. The all-action main event of Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Mike Alvarado on the network generated an audience of 1,198,000 viewers, making it the second most watched bout on cable so far this year. The slugfest attracted a peak viewership of 1,322,000 viewers.

The undercard fight of Viktor Postol vs. Selcuk Aydin – both making their HBO debut – registered 1,002,000 viewers, making it the fifth most watched bout on cable in 2014. The fight peaked with 1,137,000 viewers.

HBO’s spring season resumes Saturday, May 31 with a full-day of boxing programming highlighted at 4 p.m. (ET/PT) when Nonito Donaire meets Simpiwe Vetyeka in a featherweight title bout from Macau followed by the live telecast of the highly anticipated super middleweight title rematch between Carl Froch and George Groves from Wembley Stadium in London, England. A crowd of 80,000 is expected for the outdoor event.

Top 6 Cable TV audiences for live boxing in 2014:

2014 Bout Ranking Viewers (000s)

1 HBO: 3/1/14 CHAVEZ JR. VS. VERA II 1390

2 HBO: 5/17/14 MARQUEZ VS. ALVARADO 1198

3 HBO: 3/1/14 SALIDO VS. LOMACHENKO 1017

4 HBO: 3/29/14 KOVALEV VS. AGNEW 1006

5 HBO: 5/17/14 POSTOL VS. AYDIN 1002

6 HBO: 1/18/14 PASCAL VS. BUTE 982

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