Daniel Jacobs' first fight of 2018 gave HBO a massive boost in viewership, resulting in the second-most watch fight on premium cable in 2018.
According to Showbuzz Daily, Jacobs' unanimous decision win over Maciej Sulecki, which headlined an HBO Boxing telecast from the Barclays Center on April 28 averaged 811,000 viewers in its live airing. That viewership is the highest for an HBO-televised boxing match in 2018. Jacobs' win over Sulecki made him the WBA's mandatory challenger for the middleweight title currently owned by Gennady Golovkin.
The fight peaked at 874,000 viewers. In terms of fights being televised on premium cable, only the March 3 Showtime main event, Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz, averaged a higher viewership in its live airing.
The April 28 fight was Jacobs' second straight fight on HBO television since losing to Golovkin on pay-per-view in 2017. Viewership for the April 28 HBO card is higher than Jacobs' last fight which was a November 2017 win over Luis Arias, averaging 706,000 viewers and peaking at 765,000.
The co-main event of the April 28 telecast saw heavyweight contender Jarrell Miller go the distance for the second time in his professional career, getting a wide unanimous decision win over former world title challenger Johann Duhaupas. That fight averaged 706,000 viewers on the live airing, peaking at 834,000 viewers.
HBO's next boxing telecast is the May 5 boxing card taking place at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Golovkin will defend his WBA and WBC titles against Vanes Martirosyan in the main event and the co-main event will be the network's first-ever live women's boxing match with Cecilia Braekhus defending her undisputed welterweight titles against Kali Reis. Fightful will have live coverage of the card.