ESPN 5/12: Vasyl Lomachenko vs Jorge Linares (WBA Lightweight Championship)

[patscorpio]

Lomachenko-Linares Show Snags Average Audience of 1,024,000

By Keith Idec

Vasiliy Lomachenko-Jorge Linares was a much more competitive, compelling fight than Lomachenko’s domination of Guillermo Rigondeaux, but it didn’t draw greater ratings.

Nielsen Media Research numbers released Tuesday revealed ESPN’s two-bout broadcast Saturday night, which featured Lomachenko’s 10th-round technical knockout of Linares, drew an average audience of 1,024,00 viewers. The peak viewership for the Lomachenko-Linares battle wasn’t available as of Tuesday afternoon.

Lomachenko’s previous performance, a technical knockout of the previously unbeaten Rigondeaux on December 9 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden, drew a higher average rating for ESPN (1,730,000).

Top Rank’s doubleheader Saturday night began at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT – right in the middle of prime time on the East Coast, but earlier than usual for boxing broadcasts. It began with welterweight prospect Carlos Adames’ 10-round, unanimous-decision victory over Alejandro Barrera.

While lower than Lomachenko’s last fight, the average rating for Lomachenko-Linares was higher than all but one of Top Rank’s first five ESPN offerings in 2018.

The only Top Rank/ESPN broadcast that lured a higher average audience in 2018 was the card headlined by Oscar Valdez’s victory over Scott Quigg in a WBO featherweight championship match March 10. That telecast from StubHub Center in Carson, California, was watched by an average audience of 1,100,000.

Lomachenko-Linares also ranked No. 3 among all shows on cable television Saturday night, sports and non-sports, in viewers ages 18-49, a coveted demographic for advertisers.

Those that watched Saturday night were treated to a back-and-forth, tactical battle in which both boxers displayed high skill levels and boxing IQs.

Ukraine’s Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) was behind on one scorecard – 84-86, 86-84 and 85-85 – when he unleashed a diverse, 10-punch combination to Linares’ head that set up a perfectly placed left hook to Linares’ liver in the 10th round.

That temporarily paralyzing punch sent Linares to one knee. The 32-year-old Linares (44-4, 27 KOs) got to his feet before referee Ricky Gonzalez’s count reached 10, but Gonzalez determined Linares shouldn’t continue and stopped their bout at 2:08 of the 10th round.

The 30-year-old Lomachenko became a world champion in a third weight class in just his 12th professional fight. He took the WBA world lightweight title from Venezuela’s Linares in his debut at 135 pounds.

interesting valdez vs quigg got higher ratings than this..better fight though? ...i guess its what you prefer..a vicious war that went the distance that had drama along with horrific injuries on both fighters or a technical fight with ebb and flow with a knockdown on each fighter and a finish?

 

[Liu Kang]

I think Loma was stunned a bit with a right (might've been an overhand) earlier in the fight as well, i'll have to watch the fight again but i believe it was in the first few rounds. Commentators didnt say nothing. If Linares power is so so then breh doesn't need to move up anymore. Even though he lost i think Russell showed the real blueprint to beat the guy, fast hands and power, he wasnt scared to throw with breh and he dropped him as well.

That's not what I'd call a blueprint breh And fast hands indeed but GDJ connected like 10% of his punches.

 

[GREENandYELLOW]

That's not what I'd call a blueprint breh And fast hands indeed but GDJ connected like 10% of his punches.

GRJ didn't look like the blueprint to me either. Looked like what happens when you fight another talented fighter.

To me more of a blueprint was Salido. Loma doesn't like being bullied. I think he has learned enough he won't let a 126 lb fighter bully him, but I think he could get bullied at 135 and not be big or strong enough and put in a bad situation.

 

[patscorpio]

Lomachenko-Linares Had Peak Viewership of 1,749,000 on ESPN

By Keith Idec

Vasiliy Lomachenko-Jorge Linares was the most-watched boxing match on cable television in 2018.

According to Nielsen Media Research statistics released Wednesday, Lomachenko’s 10th-round technical knockout of Linares drew a peak audience of 1,749,000 on Saturday night for ESPN. The average audience during that main event from Madison Square Garden was 1,439,000.

When the broadcast began at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, 529,000 viewers were watching. Thus the audience more than tripled from the time it began until it reached its peak during the 10th round of Lomachenko-Linares.

Prior to Saturday night, the Gennady Golovkin-Vanes Martirosyan middleweight title fight drew the highest ratings of any boxing match on cable in 2018. Golovkin’s second-round knockout of Martirosyan attracted a peak audience of 1,361,000 and an average audience of 1,249,000 on May 5 from StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Golovkin-Martirosyan was broadcast by HBO, a premium cable channel that has a U.S. subscriber base of roughly 32,000,000. ESPN, a basic cable network, is available in approximately 86 million homes in the United States.

As BoxingScene.com reported Tuesday, the average audience for ESPN’s entire two-bout broadcast Saturday night was 1,024,000. The telecast began with welterweight prospect Carlos Adames’ 10-round, unanimous-decision victory over Alejandro Barrera.

The average rating for Lomachenko-Linares was higher than all but one of Top Rank’s first five ESPN boxing broadcasts in 2018.

The only Top Rank/ESPN broadcast that lured a higher average audience overall in 2018 was the card headlined by Oscar Valdez’s victory over Scott Quigg in a WBO featherweight championship match March 10. That telecast from StubHub Center was watched by an average audience of 1,100,000.

Lomachenko-Linares also ranked No. 3 among all shows on cable television Saturday night, sports and non-sports, in viewers ages 18-49, a coveted demographic for advertisers.

Viewers witnessed a highly competitive, compelling battle between tremendous technical boxers.

Ukraine’s Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) was behind on one scorecard – 84-86, 86-84 and 85-85 – when the skillful southpaw unloaded a diverse, 10-punch combination to Linares’ head that opened up a chance to land a perfectly placed left hook to Linares’ liver in the 10th round.

That punch temporarily paralyzed Linares and sent him to one knee. The 32-year-old Linares (44-4, 27 KOs) reached his feet just before referee Ricky Gonzalez’s count got to 10, but Gonzalez determined Linares shouldn’t continue and stopped their bout at 2:08 of the 10th round.

The 30-year-old Lomachenko took the WBA world lightweight title from Venezuela’s Linares in his debut at 135 pounds. The two-time Olympic gold medalist also became a world champion in a third weight class in only his 12th professional fight.

 

[87 others]

And Rigo


Just a bunch of haters in The Ring who sound silly after every fight: "bu-bu-but Salido 4 years ago in Loma 2nd fight"


Loma too good and aint nothing they can do but be mad about it

Worst part about being Loma’s opponent is that some fans discard you like you were a piece of trash just to discredit the win. nikkas acting like Linares was just some random fighter - pathetic.

 

[Skip b]

Worst part about being Loma’s opponent is that some fans discard you like you were a piece of trash just to discredit the win. nikkas acting like Linares was just some random fighter - pathetic.

Linares aint no A level talent, so stop it.......Elite level talent is supposed show levels against other solid fighters he didnt here, where there are a few levels up from Linares, I used to think Loma beats Mikey, Im not sure he could get away from Mikey Jab and right hand, he get hit too damn much too easy

 

[NormanConnors]

That's not what I'd call a blueprint breh And fast hands indeed but GDJ connected like 10% of his punches.

Loma's chin is out there on some Popeye shyt when he's letting off, he's there to be hit for someone that isnt scared throw with him.

 

[Cole Cash]

Linares aint no A level talent, so stop it.......Elite level talent is supposed show levels against other solid fighters he didnt here, where there are a few levels up from Linares, I used to think Loma beats Mikey, Im not sure he could get away from Mikey Jab and right hand, he get hit too damn much too easy

Lineares is cursed with the fact that he was supposed to be where Loma is now and ended up getting starched in 09 and losing to the likes of Antonio Demarco. He’s managed a decent come back and this is honestly a good win, but nothing great as Tokyo Jorge was once again, stopped. Basically to me it’s like beating a prime Jhonny Gonzalez

 

[Gravity]

Loma's chin is out there on some Popeye shyt when he's letting off, he's there to be hit for someone that isnt scared throw with him.

He reaches for body shots leaving himself wide open for counters that A level fighters won’t miss.

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

He reaches for body shots leaving himself wide open for counters that A level fighters won’t miss.

oh shyt, dope dope avi!!!

 

[reservoirdogs]

He reaches for body shots leaving himself wide open for counters that A level fighters won’t miss.

tbf you have to reach for placing a liver shot... (except very close range) it's just in the nature of it, it's just a matter of timing and speed to pull it off. You can't place a perfect liver punch and be totally safe from counters at the same time and that generally applies to body shots which are not very close range.
Also Loma's head is usually off-line, he doesn't just leave his head there. He can make mistakes of course but generally speaking he isn't that irresponsible. He has an offensive style which means he will also provide more chances to opponents to hit him whatever how good his defense is but for an offensive fighter he is not defensively irresponsible and not that easy to hit. He is also good at discouraging opponents from really trying to stop him from gaining momentum with constant feinting and throwing punches in bunches where many of them punches are pitty-patty arm punches but he slides in some hard shots too and the opponent is always guessing which shot gonna be a hard one, that's why they don't just walk straight through the pitty-patty stuff. See the ending sequence... he threw a bunch of arm punches at Linares head, Linares covered up so his liver left open, the end.

I will say though that I think too many times people score Loma rounds because his spectacular foortwork and combos which look very fast but not every punch lands and most of the punches are just arm punches even if otherwise the opponent landed the bigger, more telling blows. I don't give rounds on the opponent seem to be befuddled for a few seconds if otherwise he is winning the round and landing equal amount but harder punches.