Terence Crawford's latest fight gave Top Rank its highest-watched boxing broadcast on ESPN this year.
According to Showbuzz Daily, The December 14 Top Rank on ESPN card from Madison Square Garden averaged 1.35 million viewers and 561,000 viewers in the 18-49 demographic. As far as ratings are concerned, the show did a 0.87 household rating and a 0.35 rating in the 18-49 demographic (third best on cable for the day).
For comparison, last year?s December Top Rank on ESPN broadcast from Madison Square Garden averaged 1.865 viewers and a 1.17 household rating. In 2017, that card did 1.73 million viewers and a 1.03 household rating. This year?s December show at MSG was headlined by Terence Crawford vs. Egidijus vs. Kavaliauskas for the WBO welterweight title. The last time Crawford headlined an ESPN-televised card was in October 2018 against Jose Benavidez Jr. That broadcast averaged 2.245 million viewers.
Crawford survived getting hit hard by Kavaliauskas early in their fight to eventually drop Kavaliauskas multiple times en route to a ninth-round stoppage win to retain the WBO welterweight title. The co-main event bout featured Teofimo Lopez beating Richard Commey in the second round to become the new IBF lightweight champion. In the opening bout, Michael Conlan won a 10-round decision against Vladimir Nikitin in a rematch of their 2016 amateur fight in the Olympics that saw Nikitin win with a controversial decision.
Top Rank's next card televised on ESPN will take place on January 11 in Atlantic City, New Jersey and will be headlined by Jesse Hart vs. Joe Smith Jr.