Lopez Saturday Upset Of Lomachenko Scored with ESPN Audience

Turns out that Bob Arum and Top Rank Boxing’s decision to put the Teofimo Lopez – Vasiliy Lomachenko World Lightweight Title fight on basic ESPN cable Saturday night was the right decision.

This after final audience info came in Tuesday Morning showing that the unbeaten Lopez’s main event upset of the Unified World Champ Lomachenko was viewed on average by nearly 3 million people Saturday night in Vegas,

Saturday's Lomachenko vs Lopez world title unification fight peaked at almost 3 million television viewers

? The most viewed boxing telecast across all cable networks in 2019 & 2020
? The most streamed boxing event ever on ESPN & ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/q93PnG7DEI

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) October 20, 2020

That audience number is not only significant on its own, but with the fact that it was up against stiff sports television competition for viewers on Saturday night and still did a good audience number, bodes well.

The night was won by CBS’ showing of the Alabama – Georgia SEC College Football game live on their over the air network and that had over 10 million watching on average for the 3-hour block from 8 – 11 p.m. Eastern Time.

The boxing card on ESPN was also up against game 7 of the baseball American League Championship Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Houston Astros, which had over 4 million people on average watching on TBS basic cable.

So obviously, it was a big sports viewership night in the United States.

Arum had talked frequently over the last couple of months leading to Lopez – Lomachenko that they were to be credited for being willing to take a little less money for their fight to not be on some form of ESPN pay-per-view or ESPN+ pay subscription streaming.

And, the undercard for Loma – Lopez also benefited from an outstanding 4 million+ fan lead-in on the ESPN, who had been watching the Mississippi State – Texas A&M college football game leading to 7:30 p.m. when the boxing began

By comparison, ESPN’s basic cable broadcast in December of 2019 of WBO Welterweight champ Terence Crawford’s main event title defense against lesser known  Egidjius “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas had a television audience of only 1.6 million viewers. 

And, that fight card had no where near the competition on other networks for sports fans. Yet, it had nearly 1.5 million less fans watching.

So, the numbers for Saturday night’s show only validate those, who have repeatedly said that if there is an outstanding match up properly promoted and not behind a “pay wall,” that fight fans will find it.