On the eve of Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin 2, Top Rank's boxing telecast on ESPN managed to do better numbers than the previous boxing card shown live on the network.
According to an article from Showbuzz Daily, the September 14 Top Rank on ESPN card headlined by Jose Ramirez vs. Antonio Orozco for the WBC junior welterweight title averaged 662,000 viewers. The event also drew in a 0.22 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is good for 42nd on cable that night.
The viewership could have been better, but the telecast did not start on ESPN as it was intended. That is because a college football game between Memphis vs. Georgia State was taking longer than originally intended. The Top Rank broadcast started on ESPN2 and got moved to ESPN as soon as the game was over when it was in the middle of the opening bout, a super featherweight fight between Gabriel Flores Jr. and Roger Gutierrez.
The main event of the September 14 card saw Ramirez knock down Orozco multiple times en route to a wide unanimous decision win to retain his title. In the co-main event, Jamel Herring defeated John Vincent Moralde to win the vacant USBA super featherweight title.
The viewership for this card was up from the August 25 Top Rank broadcast, which featured Raymundo Beltran vs. Jose Pedraza in a WBO lightweight title bout and averaged 532,000 viewers.
Top Rank's next telecast on ESPN will take place on October 13 when Terence Crawford defends his WBO welterweight title against Jose Benavidez Jr.
