Saturday’s Top Rank on ESPN saw pound-for-pound king Terence Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) retain his WBO welterweight world title with a fourth-round TKO over former welterweight world champion Kell Brook in the main event from the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
The fight delivered big on viewership, ranking as the top boxing telecast across all TV networks since January 2019.
Top Things to Know
- Crawford vs. Brook averaged 1,758,000 viewers, making it the most viewed boxing telecast across on all TV networks since January 2019
- The main event was also the most viewed boxing telecast on cable since December 2018 (Lomachenko vs. Pedraza on ESPN: 1,889,000)
- The fight rating peaked during the 11:45 p.m.-12:00 a.m. ET quarter-hour with 2.1 million viewers
- Through seven Saturday night telecasts on ESPN so far this year, Top Rank on ESPN has averaged 1,033,000 viewers, up 44% from 11 Saturday night telecasts in 2019
- Adults 18-49 are up 54% year-over-year.
- Crawford vs. Brook ranked No. 1 as the most socially engaged boxing telecast across TV over the last two years, with over 306,000 total social interactions across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
- Crawford vs. Brook had a strong performance on social media, becoming the most socially engaged telecast across TV over the last two years, with over 306,000 social interactions across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
- Lomachenko vs. Lopez and Crawford vs. Brook have been the most socially engaged boxing telecasts across the TV in consecutive months over the last two years.
Top Rank on ESPN has featured an action-packed fall schedule highlighted by some of the leaders of boxing’s electric youth movement, including stunning performances by the new undisputed lightweight king Teofimo Lopez, WBO female junior lightweight world champion Mikaela Mayer and WBA/IBF unified bantamweight world champion Naoya Inoue.
Rising star Shakur Stevenson, the undefeated former featherweight world champion from Newark, N.J., is set to close out the year in a 10-round junior lightweight main event against Toka Kahn Clary, Saturday, Dec. 12, from MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Source: Nielsen, Nielsen Social Content Ratings