Putting together a list of the most-watched boxing fights of the year by myself poses a unique challenge. Both HBO and Showtime break up their boxing cards into multiple parts for ratings purposes that include both actual fights and bridge segments between fights, and to someone like me who’s just looking at the raw numbers it’s not at all clear which is which, especially when fights end in early knockouts – if you look at the chart you see I’ve listed two different time slots for one fight because I’m not sure my primary source identified which one was the actual fight correctly. I’m confident enough in the completeness of my sources that next year I’m probably going to do a chronological list of fight cards, similar to what I had for UFC last year, with all the numbers I have for them, and let you interpret them as you will. In the meantime, I’m going to take Dan Rafael’s top 16 fights of 2014 and use that as a baseline to extend the list as far as I can be reasonably confident in to a top 20, though I can’t be 100% certain there isn’t an interloper in the bottom four spots. The second table lists buyrates for all the PPV cards of 2014.
18-49 ratings, when available, from TV by the Numbers, TV Media Insights, or other sources. Household ratings for HBO/Showtime fights from SportsBusiness Daily, for ESPN from Son of the Bronx.
Top 20 Most-Watched Boxing Fights of 2014
| Vwr (mil) | HH | 18-49 | Time | Net | ||
|
1 |
World Championship Boxing: Cesar Chavez Jr. v. Vera |
1.39 |
0.9 |
0.6 |
3/1 11:15 PM |
HBO |
|
2 |
World Championship Boxing: Sergey Kovalev v. Bernard Hopkins |
1.328 |
0.6 |
11/8 11:58 PM |
HBO | |
|
3 |
World Championship Boxing: Golovkin v. Rubio |
1.304 |
0.5 |
10/18 11:12 PM |
HBO | |
|
4 |
Boxing After Dark: Crawford v. Gamboa |
1.208 |
0.4 |
6/28 11:09 PM |
HBO | |
|
5 |
World Championship Boxing: Marquez v. Alvarez |
1.198 |
0.5 |
5/17 11:37 PM |
HBO | |
|
6 |
World Championship Boxing: Donaire v. Walters |
1.147 |
0.7 |
0.4 |
10/18 10:30 PM |
HBO |
|
1.088 |
0.6 |
0.4 |
10/18 10:15 PM |
HBO | ||
|
7 |
Boxing After Dark: Provodnikov v. Algieri |
1.046 |
0.4 |
6/14 11:50 PM |
HBO | |
|
8 |
World Championship Boxing: Salido v. Lomachenko |
1.017 |
0.4 |
3/1 10:00 PM |
HBO | |
|
9 |
Sergey Kovalev v. Cedric Agnew |
1.006 |
March 29 | HBO | ||
|
10 |
World Championship Boxing: Postol v. Aydin |
1.002 |
0.4 |
5/17 10:30 PM |
HBO | |
|
11 |
Boxing After Dark: Kovalev v. Caparello |
0.99 |
0.4 |
8/2 11:00 PM |
HBO | |
|
12 |
World Championship Boxing: Golovkin v. Geale |
0.984 |
0.4 |
July 26 | HBO | |
|
13 |
Jean Pascal v. Lucian Bute |
0.982 |
January 18 | HBO | ||
|
14 |
Showtime Championship Boxing: Garcia v. Herrera |
0.972 |
0.4 |
3/15 10:40 PM |
Showtime | |
|
15 |
World Championship Boxing: Bradley v. Chaves |
0.966 |
0.5 |
12/13 11:48 PM |
HBO | |
|
16 |
WBC Heavyweight Championship: Bermane Stiverne v. Chris Arreola |
0.94 |
0.7 |
5/10 8:00 PM |
ESPN | |
|
17 |
Boxing After Dark: Rios v. Chaves |
0.936 |
0.4 |
8/2 11:34 PM |
HBO | |
|
18 |
Showtime Championship Boxing: Floyd Mayweather v. Marcos Maidana II |
0.925 |
September 13 | PPV | ||
|
19 |
Boxing After Dark: Korobov v. Uzcategui |
0.909 |
0.3 |
6/28 10:48 PM |
HBO | |
|
20 |
Boxing After Dark: Lemieux v. Rosado |
0.908 |
0.3 |
12/6 11:28 PM |
HBO |
2014 Pay-Per-View Boxing Buyrates (in thousands)
| Showtime Championship Boxing: Floyd Mayweather v. Marcos Maidana II |
925 |
September 13 |
| Showtime Championship Boxing: Floyd Mayweather v. Marcos Maidana |
850 |
May 3 |
| HBO World Championship Boxing: Manny Pacquiao v. Timothy Bradley II |
750 |
April 12 |
| Showtime Championship Boxing: Canelo Alvarez v. Alfredo Angulo |
350 |
March 8 |
| HBO World Championship Boxing: Manny Pacquiao v. Chris Algieri |
350 |
November 23 |
| HBO World Championship Boxing: Miguel Cotto v. Sergio Martinez |
315 |
June 7 |
| Showtime Championship Boxing: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez v. Erislandy Lara |
300 |
July 12 |