The viewership numbers for the May 12 HBO boxing card are in.
According to Showbuzz Daily, the HBO card headlined by the WBO junior middleweight title fight between Sadam Ali and Jaime Munguia, averaged 711,000 viewers in the main event, down from the 1.249 million viewers the May 5 boxing card averaged for its main event, which was Gennady Golovkin vs. Vanes Martirosyan. The fight peaked at 779,000 viewers with the telecast starting as a Top Rank Boxing card on ESPN was ending.
Munguia, who came in as a late replacement for Liam Smith, knocked out Ali inside four rounds to capture his first world title. Smith was originally supposed to face Ali, but Smith suffered a skin condition that prevented him from getting ready in time for the May 12 bout.
The final viewership for the May 12 fight is also down from Ali’s last fight back in December when he retired Miguel Cotto to win the WBO title. The December 2 fight, which was also televised on HBO, averaged 944,000 viewers and peaked at 1.012 million viewers.
In the co-main-event, Rey Vargas defeated Azat Hovhannisyan to retain his WBC super bantamweight title. That fight averaged 619,000 viewers, peaking at 740,000.
HBO is expected to take an extended break from live boxing with its next live telecast taking place in August, headlined by Sergey Kovalev vs. Eleider Alvarez for the WBO light heavyweight title.
