William Zepeda’s dominant victory over Lamont Roach Jr. drew an average of 748,000 viewers on TNT Sports on August 1, giving the WBC lightweight champion a solid television audience in the second edition of The Fight.
The ratings were obtained by Abraham Gonzalez of FightsATW directly from the network after no figures were publicly released for the event.
The network reported that Zepeda-Roach pulled in 748,000 viewers, while the IBF lightweight title fight between Raymond Muratalla and Robson Conceição generated 738,000. The telecast peaked at 786,000 during the championship portion of the card.
Those numbers are encouraging for Zepeda because he was not relying on a major mainstream attraction on the other side of the ring. Roach had gained attention from his controversial draw against Gervonta Davis, but neither fighter has been established as a major television draw.
The entire August 1 telecast registered an average of 598,000 viewers. More importantly, the final two hours averaged 694,000, a 2% increase over the inaugural July 4 boxing show.
That first card peaked at 820,000 viewers, meaning the August 1 peak was slightly lower. However, the higher average over the final two hours indicates viewers stayed with the championship fights once they began.
Zepeda defeated Roach by scores of 117-111, 117-111 and 118-110 to capture the vacant WBC lightweight title. He now has an obvious unification possibility against WBO champion Abdullah Mason, who headlined the first The Fight card with his July 4 victory over Albert Bell.
Putting Mason and Zepeda together would allow the network to match the winners of its first two main events while both champions are already familiar to viewers of the series.