Oleksandr Gvozdyk's first WBC light heavyweight title defense managed to draw at least 600,000 viewers throughout the entire ESPN telecast.
According to Showbuzz Daily, the March 30 Top Rank on ESPN telecast from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia averaged 655,000 viewers. The main event was Gvozdyk successfully retaining his world title against Doudou Ngumbu.
The event drew a 0.17 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which was good for 33rd on cable in that category for the entire day. The Top Rank telecast's ratings were somewhat helped by the fact that it came on immediately after a UFC Fight Night event that also took place from Philadelphia. The UFC card, headlined by Justin Gaethje's first-round knockout win over Edson Barboza, averaged 828,000 viewers and a 0.26 rating in the 18-49 demo.
Gvozdyk was ahead on the scorecards in the fifth round, but Ngumbu suffered an injury and was unable to continue fighting. As a result, Gvozdyk was declared the winner and made his first title defense since winning the belt last year with a knockout win over Adonis Stevenson in Canada. The opening bout of the telecast was a welterweight bout between top ranked contender between Egidijus Kavaliauskas and Ray Robinson that ended in a draw.
Top Rank's next live card on an ESPN-televised platform will take place on April 20 from Madison Square Garden. The televised card is actually a prelim card on ESPN2 that will lead in to the main card, which will be shown on ESPN pay-per-view. Before that, however, ESPN+ will stream Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. Anthony Crolla for the unified WBA and WBO lightweight titles on April 12.
