Terence Crawford vs. Jose Benavidez Jr. averaged 2.2M viewers on ESPN

By Boxing News - 10/16/2018 - Comments

Image: Terence Crawford vs. Jose Benavidez Jr. averaged 2.2M viewers on ESPN

By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford brought in monstrous ratings for his title defense against Jose Benavidez Jr. (27-1, 18 KOs) last Saturday night on ESPN. The fight averaged 2.2 million viewers with a peak of 2.7 million viewers on ESPN, according to the Nielsen Media research.

Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs) retained his World Boxing Organization 147 lb title with a 12th round knockout over previously unbeaten 26-year-old Benavidez Jr. at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

It’s a huge fete for Crawford-Benavidez to bring in an average of 2.2 million viewers on ESPN. When most non-PPV fights are averaging less than 1 million viewers, Crawford vs. Benavidez was a huge success.

The high ratings for Crawford’s fight show that his audience is growing with each and every fight. It helps that Top Rank chose to put Crawford on regular ESPN rather than on ESPN+, which boxing fans have to pay $5 per month to subscribe to it. Crawford needs to be seen by as many boxing fans as possible on free ESPN for him to build his fan base enough to where fans will want to pay money to see him fight on ESPN+ and pay-per-view. Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank says he’ll be taking the Nebraska native’s fights to pay-per-view in 2019, meaning that fans will need to pay to see him fight.

The co-feature bout between 2016 Olympic Silver medalist Shakur Stevenson (9-0, 5 KOs) and Viorel Simion (21-3,9 KOs) brought in a 1.3 metered market rating. These numbers make it 2018’s #2 highest rated boxing event on ESPN.

Crawford will be fighting next in early 2019 against possibly Top Rank fighter Egidijus Kavaliauskas. Although Arum and Top Rank president Todd DuBoef say they want to match Crawford against IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. in 2019, that fight isn’t expected to take place for quite some time. Top Rank wants to slowly build Crawford’s popularity by keeping him busy against the best possible fights that they can make. Top Rank can make the Crawford vs. Kavaliauskas fight, as both fighters are promoted by their company. However, it’s not a match that the boxing world is asking for. The casual boxing fans haven’t heard of the 30-year-old Kavaliauskas, and they’re not likely to show interest in watching it. Arum will likely stick the Crawford-Kavaliauskas fight on ESPN+ which will drive down the numbers of viewers that will see it. It could be a double whammy.

The fans haven’t heard of Kavaliauskas, which will make them not want to take the time out to see Crawford fight him. But when you factor in the possibility of Crawford vs. Kavaliauskas being shown on ESPN+ in which fans have to pay $5 per month to subscribe to see the fights, it could spell much lower ratings. Crawford still needs to be seen by a lot of boxing fans before the people will be willing to pay to see him fight. It would help Crawford immensely if Top Rank stops matching him against lesser fighters and start putting him in against the better guys in the 147 lb division. Arum surprised the boxing media last weekend when he ruled out matching Crawford against Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia in the future. Arum doesn’t see them as elite fighters, and he only wants to match Crawford against Errol Spence Jr. That’s a great idea if Arum puts Crawford in with Spence four of five times like he did in matching Manny Pacquiao against Juan Manuel Marquez four times, Tim Bradley three times, Erik Morales three times and Marco Antonio Barrera two times. But when Arum dismisses the idea of having Crawford fight Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter, it means that the boxing fans are likely going to need to watch Terence fight more guys like Kavaliauskas, Jeff Horn, Benavidez, Julius Indongo, Dierry Jean, Felix Diaz and Viktor Postol. Those were all mismatches that did nothing for Crawford’s career. Crawford needs to be able to fight better opposition than the guys that Arum has been feeding him. Arum may or may not want admit it, but Porter and Danny Garcia are more popular and arguably much better fighters than the guys that he’s been matching him against. I rate Garcia and Porter well above the likes of Benavidez, Horn, Indongo, Postol, Jean, Diaz and Kavaliauskas.