The first edition of Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV that aired Friday drew 1 million viewers at it’s peak when headliners Andre Berto and Josesito Lopez fought in their welterweight fight.
The entire telecast averaged 869,000 viewers making it the most watched boxing event on a Friday night in eight years, when Cornelius Bundrage and Chris Smith squared off on ESPN 2 in January of 2007.
This comes on the heels of the highly successful PBC on NBC’s debut show that peaked at 4.2 million viewers and averaged 3.4 million viewers.
The Spike TV bout saw Berto overcome a sluggish start to stun Lopez and stop him via Round 6 TKO, in a stoppage that was semi-debatable.
Having recognizable names on the card in Berto, Lopez and from the co-main event, Shawn Porter, who won his bout versus Erick Bone by fifth-round knockout, can be attributed to the solid numbers, and should be a blueprint for future PBC cards all networks that struck deals with the Al Haymon-backed series.
The fight offered more action that the first PBC event that aired on NBC a week earlier, and seemed to have some of the issues from the NBC broadcast fixed for the first Spike TV card, which made the entire broadcast easier to watch.
Based off the response from the first two PBC events, there’s a spot for boxing on mainstream broadcast television, in addition to increased events on cable networks as well.
Boxing fans also showed interest in the PBC on social media, as the PBC’s Facebook and Twitter platforms saw the highlight videos for the event receive over 1.5 million views between them.
