Adrien Broner's first fight since last summer turned out to be a ratings success for Showtime.
According to Showbuzz Daily, Broner's April 21 fight against former welterweight champion Jessie Vargas averaged 782,000 viewers in the main event of a Showtime Championship Boxing card from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The fight peaked at 891,000 viewers, making it the second-highest peak viewership for a boxing fight on Showtime in 2018.
The April 21 telecast continued a string of telecasts that have Broner in the main event and achieve a high viewership. Broner's last fight, a unanimous decision loss to Mikey Garcia, averaged 881,000 viewers on Showtime. Broner's February 18 fight against Adrien Granados averaged 779,000 viewers on Showtime, making Broner's last three fights among the most-watched boxing fights on Showtime since the start of last year. The peak viewership for the fight against Vargas also meant that all three of Broner's last fights peaked at least at 859,000 viewers on Showtime.
The fight between Broner and Vargas ended in a majority draw that saw Broner win 115-113 on one judge's scorecard while two other scorecards had the fight scored a 114-114, 114-114 draw. Fightful scored the fight 115-113 in favor of Broner on Fightful's live coverage of the telecast, which also included two title fights. Gervonta Davis won the WBA "super" super featherweight title in the opening bout of the telecast while Jermall Charlo knocked out Hugo Centeno Jr. to win the interim WBC middleweight title in the co-main event.
