Rob Brant vs. Khasan Baysangurov Fails To Draw One Million Viewers
ESPN’s latest Top Rank Boxing card was not a smashing success in the viewership and ratings.
According to Showbuzz Daily, the February 15 Top Rank Boxing card averaged 704,000 viewers on ESPN. The telecast peaked at 769,000 viewers during the main event, which was a WBA “Regular” middleweight title bout between Rob Brant and Khasan Baysangurov. The ESPN telecast drew a 0.48 household rating.
The card had very little competition and had a somewhat strong lead-in with the NBA All-Star Celebrity game taking place right before the Top Rank card. The only sports competition the Top Rank card had to contend with was the NBA All-Star Rising Stars game, which aired on TNT and averaged 1.46 million viewers. The viewership numbers are slightly up from the February 10 Top Rank Boxing on ESPN broadcast, which averaged 655,000 viewers and drew a 0.44 household rating
In his first world title defense, Brant dominated Baysangurov throughout the fight, ending with Brant stopping his opponent in the 11th round. The co-main event saw rising women’s boxing star Mikaela Mayer defeating Yareli Larios while the opening bout featured WBC Continental Americas bantamweight titleholder Joshua Greer Jr. in action.
While the ESPN+ streaming platform will have boxing cards for the next few weeks, ESPN’s next televised boxing card that has been officially announced won’t take place until March 30 in Philadelphia. The main event of that card is Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs. Doudou Ngumbu for the WBC light heavyweight title.
