Anthony Joshua vs. Joseph Parker Draws 346,000 Viewers On Showtime
Despite heavy competition from the NCAA Men’s Final Four, Anthony Joshua’s latest fight managed to attract a slightly higher viewership on Showtime from his previous fight.
Joshua’s unanimous decision victory over Joseph Parker at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales averaged 346,000 viewers on Showtime on the live March 31 telecast, peaking at 379,000 viewers. The fight was televised in the United States live in the afternoon and was in direct competition with the first of the two men’s college basketball semifinal games, which drew more than 10 million viewers.
The replay of that fight, which took place later that evening, averaged 430,000 viewers, peaking at 483,000, for a combined average of 776,000 viewers on March 31. The live broadcast was slightly higher than Showtime’s viewership for Joshua’s previous fight, a TKO win over Carlos Takam back on October 28. That fight averaged 334,000 for the live airing and 309,000 for the prime time replay, good for a combined total of 643,000 viewers.
Joshua defeated Parker to unify the WBA “Super,” WBO and IBF heavyweight titles, becoming the first man to hold three major world heavyweight titles at the same time since Tyson Fury did it in late 2015 by defeating Wladimir Klitschko.
Showtime’s next boxing event is the April 7 Showtime Championship Boxing card from Las Vegas. The main event is the WBA/IBF junior middleweight title unification bout between Erislandy Lara and Jarrett Hurd. The co-main event of that card is the IBF super middleweight rematch between Caleb Truax and James DeGale.
