And they say the Heavyweight division doesn’t matter. According to Nielsen Research, the Wladimir Klitschko-Bryant Jennings fight this past Saturday from Madison Square Garden pulled in an average of 1.637 million viewers over 12 rounds, peaking at 1.742 million viewers. Klitschko retained his crown via unanimous decision.
It was the highest rating any cable TV fight since 2012.
The co-feature between Sadam Ali and Francisco Santana drew 1 million viewers, peaking at 1.134 million. Ali won a decision against Santana.
Klitschko’s return to the United States was well received on both fronts. Klitschko-Jennings drew a live audience of 17,056 in the mecca, Madison Square Garden. Recently, only Miguel Cotto has pulled better numbers and most of that action has occurred on the eve of the Puerto Rican parade.
Klitschko’s return to HBO was a 3 fight deal with this being the second one. On an afternoon in November, Klitschko took on Kubrat Pulev and those ratings on HBO were good for the afternoon. The bout average 620,000 viewers, peaking at 700,000 viewers, both of which are strong numbers for an afternoon fight.
Klitschko’s second bout of the deal was with Jennings and that number is the strongest on HBO since 2012. Klitschko is now in line to face Tyson Fury. HBO will most likely televise but the fight however will most likely take place in Europe. Klitschko will likely make his return to the United States if and when he can make a fight with American Deontay Wilder, who holds the WBC version of the heavyweight bout. But at that time, we won’t know if HBO will renew a Klitschko deal and how it would work out with Wilder as he is a fighter on the PBC series.
With that being said, Klitschko did great numbers on both television and live attendance, so one would expect a return soon.
