Mikey Garcia's victory over Robert Easter Jr. to unify the WBC and IBF lightweight titles was a ratings success for Showtime.
According to Showbuzz Daily, Garcia vs. Easter, which headlined the July 28 Showtime Championship Boxing card from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, averaged 680,000 viewers and peaked at 725,000 viewers. Garcia knocked down Easter in the third round to eventually win by unanimous decision (116-111, 117-110, 118-109) with Fightful, who provided coverage of the fight live from the Staples Center, scoring the fight from ringside 119-108 in favor of Garcia.
The fight went all 12 rounds and the final numbers are almost identical to Showtime's last broadcast: the June 16 telecast featuring Errol Spence Jr.'s first round knockout win over Carlos Ocampo. The June 16 main event, which only went for three minutes, averaged 683,000 viewers, peaking at 726,000.
As far as viewership for the rest of the July 28 card is concerned, the co-main event fight saw Luis Ortiz knock out Razvan Cojanu in the second round in a heavyweight bout. That fight averaged 583,000 viewers with a peak viewership of 462,000. The television opener, Mario Barrios vs. Jose Roman, averaged 462,000 viewers and peaked at 530,000.
The next Showtime Championship Boxing broadcast will take place on September 8 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The main event of that card will be Danny Garcia vs. Shawn Porter for the vacant WBC welterweight title. This will be the fourth time in 2018 that Showtime has a boxing broadcast take place at the Barclays Center.
