Numbers For Teofimo Lopez Heisman Night Fight Slightly Down

It wasn’t a world title bout and even though Teofimo Lopez is a former world champ who hails from New York, he wasn’t an overwhelming TV draw for ESPN Saturday night.

Showbuzz daily posted the official cable ratings for Saturday night and, while Lopez’s lackluster decision win over veteran Sandor Martin finished third in audience for the day/night, it’s still slightly less of audience than the ESPN/Top Rank Boxing show from a year ago featuring Vasiliy Lomachenko.

Updated: ShowbuzzDaily's Saturday Top 150 Cable Originals & Broadcast Finals #TVRatings: #NBA #SNL #HeismanTrophy #OnPatrolLive #TheMatch2022 https://t.co/lxQtvMU8Oe

— Mitch Metcalf/Salem (@ShowBuzzDaily) December 13, 2022

The former unified lightweight champ, Lopez got off the canvas early Saturday night to score his majority decision victory in a setting and on a date that he’s very familiar with from years gone by. This, as he had scored a devastating one punch KO of Commey in the second round on the December 2019 Top Rank show on Heisman night and captured the IBF lightweight title.

In this case, Martin was much harder to fight and at times was more interested in being elusive and tying up Lopez than actually fighting him. Still, Lopez got his second straight victory, since moving up to junior welterweight and seeking another world title opportunity. He got the nod by 10 round split decision, but it also left him standing in the ring being heard questioning his own performance saying “am I any good?” to members of his team.

As for the TV numbers, drawing an average of 840,000 viewers for the time period on ESPN was good for fifth in overall average audience on the night. The Heisman being won by USC quarterback Caleb Williams averaged 1.65 million viewers as the lead in for the boxing.

Some context on TV numbers

Lomachenko’s domination of Commey a year ago averaged just above 1 million viewers for the Saturday night after the Heisman trophy win by Alabama QB Bryce Young had been televised by ESPN. The Heisman lead-in for 2021 was 1.85 million on average for the two hour program.

So, obviously it’s a disappointment that Lopez headlining didn’t draw at least that much audience.

Still, that audience number was the third best live sporting event audience of the entire day on cable in the U.S. It trailed only a college football playoff game between South Dakota State and Holy Cross at noon Eastern time (1.65 million avg.) and an ESPN college basketball game between Memphis and Auburn that had around 963,000 average audience.