Khan-Algieri averages 811,000 viewers on Spike TV

By Boxing News - 06/01/2015 - Comments

khan677777777(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Scott Gilfoid: Last Friday’s bout between Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) and former WBOI 140lb champ Chris Algieri (20-2, 8 KOs) brought in an average of 811,000 viewers on Spike TV on Premier Boxing Champions. The fight peaked at 1.3 million viewers. That’s not bad for a fight on Spike TV. The numbers likely would have been much higher had the fight been televised on NBC or CBS.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the numbers were twice as good on those networks. The Khan vs. Algieri fight took place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. They reportedly scaled the fight for an attendance of 7,000, and curtained off the other half of the Barclays Center.

That’s obviously not a good thing for Khan because the fight was supposed to have been a showing that he belonged in the same ring with Mayweather. Khan didn’t impress against Algieri, and obviously the ratings and the scaled back Barclays Center showed that Khan has limitations in terms of popularity as well in the United States. But I still think the fight would have brought in much bigger numbers if it had been televised on NBC.

“Live airing of Khan-Algieri bout had average audience of 1M viewers on Spike. Peaked at 1.12M. They all saw a helluva fight! #boxing,” Dan Rafael said on his Twitter.

Khan won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 115-113, 117-111 and 117-111. Two of the scores were quite wide, but they didn’t accurately portray what happened in the actual fight. The fight was a lot closer than those two scores, and Khan was under constant pressure and was hurt several times in the fight. What was really surprising was how Khan was hurt by a non-puncher like Algieri.

In fairness to Khan, Algieri did appear to be punching harder than he’d ever shown in any of his previous fights. He also was bigger than he’d been in the past. Algieri looked thin against Manny Pacquiao last November in losing a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision. But against Khan, Algieri looked to be at least 10-15 pounds heavier than his last fight, and his size seemed to bother Khan. He clearly wasn’t used to fighting guys as tall and as heavy as Algieri, and it showed. Khan was constantly backing up, and really uncomfortable with the pressure that Algieri put on him.

The transformation that Algieri made in both his fighting style and his physique from his last fight was nothing short of startling. The only fighter I’ve seen make a transformation like that is Juan Manuel Marquez, who bulked up for his 2012 fight against Pacquiao and knocked him down twice in the process of scoring a knockout in the 6th.



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