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The one-sided nature of their first fight and direct competition from a boxing pay-per-view show apparently impacted viewership of the Devin Haney-George Kambosos Jr. rematch Saturday night on ESPN.
Nielsen Media Research revealed that their second 135-pound championship match drew an average audience of 935,000. Viewership peaked at 970,000 for a main event that ended approximately five minutes before Deontay Wilder’s first-round knockout of Robert Helenius began on FOX Sports Pay-Per-View.
A portion of the second Haney-Kambosos bout aired at the same time as FOX Sports Pay-Per-View’s co-feature, which resulted in Caleb Plant’s spectacular ninth-round knockout of Anthony Dirrell.
Nielsen’s numbers include only viewers who watched Haney-Kambosos II on ESPN’s English-language linear channel. Audience totals for those who viewed it on ESPN Deportes or ESPN+, the network’s streaming service, aren’t tracked by Nielsen and aren’t released by ESPN.
The buy rate for the four-fight Wilder-Helenius pay-per-view show, which cost $74.99, was not known at the time this story was posted.
The first bout between Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) and Kambosos (20-2, 10 KOs) drew an average audience of 1,322,000 and a peak audience of 1,351,000 four months ago. Haney, of Henderson, Nevada, easily out-boxed Kambosos in that fight, which took place June 5 at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia, won a 12-round unanimous decision and became boxing’s first fully unified lightweight champion of the four-belt era.
Though Haney defeated Sydney’s Kambosos comfortably on all three scorecards (118-110, 116-112, 116-112), the Oakland native was contractually obligated to grant Kambosos an immediate rematch in Australia as part of a multi-fight contract Haney signed with promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. in March.
Haney beat up Kambosos worse in their second meeting, in which the 23-year-old champion was more aggressive and connected with more power punches. He won by scores of 119-109, 118-110 and 118-110 on Saturday night at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
Both Haney-Kambosos bouts took place on Sunday afternoons local time, but those fights aired live in prime time on Saturday nights in the United States.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.