Main Event Becomes The Highest Rated Bout On Any Premium Network In The Past Year;
The Three-Fight Telecast Draws The Highest Rating on SHOWTIME®In More Than Two Years;
All Three Fights On The Live Telecast Rank In The Top-20 Most Watched Bouts On Record For The Network
NEW YORK (Jan. 21, 2015)—SHOWTIME Sports garnered a record audience for Saturday’s2015 SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING premiere telecast headlined by newly minted WBC Heavyweight World Champion Deontay Wilder in his breakout win over Bermane Stiverne. The main event ranks as the highest-rated fight on any premium network in the past 12 months while the entire three-fight telecast becomes the highest rated on SHOWTIME in more than two years. The Jan. 17 telecast attracted the second largest audience since 2004* behind the Miguel Cotto vs. Austin Trout event from Dec. 2012. (*since Nielsen began to separately measure premium television multiplex channels)
Wilder’s impressive win captured an average audience of 1.24 million viewers, ranked as the fourth highest-rated fight on record for the network, with a peak audience of 1.34 million viewers.
The average individual audiences for each of the three fights on the telecast now rank in the top-20 of the most watched bouts on SHOWTIME since 2009. WBC Super Bantamweight World Champion Leo Santa Cruz’s eighth-round TKO of Jesus Ruiz ranks 12th highest while the telecast opener, super lightweight Amir Imam’s fifth-round TKO of Fidel Maldonado Jr. ranks 20th.
The event was co-promoted by Don King Productions and Golden Boy Promotions and took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
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SHOWTIME releases Stiverne vs. Wilder Round 7 in its entirety! http://s.sho.com/1J52G55
Plus, catch the entire SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecast again on SHOWTIME ON DEMAND® and on mobile devices via SHOWTIME ANYTIME®
Photo Credit: SHOWTIME/Esther Lin
Suggested Tweet
Entire Rd7 from #StiverneWilder http://s.sho.com/1J52G55; Catch the replay ON DEMAND & SHO ANYTIME. @BStiverne vs @BronzeBomber
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“RETURN TO GLORY”: STIVERNE VS. WILDER, a 12-round fight for Stiverne’s WBC Heavyweight Championship took place Saturday, Jan. 17 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and and sponsored by Corona and Mexico – Live It To Believe It!. In the 12-round co-feature, unbeaten WBC Super Bantamweight World Champion Leo Santa Cruzdefended against Jesus Ruiz and undefeated Amir Imam faced Fidel Maldonado Jr. in a 10-round super lightweight bout for the WBC Continental Americas Super Lightweight Title. The event took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., and will aired live on SHOWTIME (10:00 p.m. ET/ 7:00 p.m. PT). The telecast was also available in Spanish via secondary audio programming (SAP). Preliminary bouts were televised live onSHOWTIME EXTREME® (8:00 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast).
For more information visit www.donking.com, www.goldenboypromotions.com andwww.sports.sho.com, follow on Twitter @GoldenBoyBoxing, @BStiverne, @BronzeBomber, @SHOSports and @MGMGrand and become a fan on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing and www.facebook.com/SHOBoxing, or visit SHOWTIME Boxing Blog athttp://theboxingblog.sho.com/.