Teiru Kinoshita of Japan, in silver shorts, is on the floor after being knocked down by Jerwin Ancajas, in red shorts, of the Philippines during their IBF World Junior Bantamweight title fight in Brisbane, Australia, Sunday, July 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard)
A couple of Filipino fighters became the highest draws in US cable television in 2017 when Manny Pacquiao and Jerwin Ancajas combined for more than six million viewers in one day alone.
Pacquiao is undoubtedly on the last few pages of his storied boxing career, but his drawing power hasn’t waned one bit.
According to Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole, Pacquiao’s loss to Jeff Horn became the most-watched fight in US cable when the Brisbane bout aired on ESPN.
The “Battle of Brisbane” drew 3,925,000 viewers in a bout that hometown hero Horn usurped Pacquiao for the WBO World welterweight belt.
Ancajas’ conquest of Teiru Kinoshita, which was the co-main event of the July 2 card in Brisbane, was the second most-watched fight in US cable in 2017.
The Filipino’s seventh-round stoppage of Kinoshita drew 2,234,000 viewers who saw Ancajas retain the IBF World super flyweight title.
Pacquiao and Ancajas, who ended up with wildly different fates in Brisbane, combined for 6,159,000 viewers for just one afternoon.
Despite the hype surrounding the bout between former Olympic gold medalists Vasyl Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux, it still didn’t come close to the figures of the Pacquiao-Horn match.
The Lomachenko-Rigondeaux bout, wherein the Ukrainian retained his WBO World super featherweight championship, had 2,114,000 viewers almost half of what Pacquiao and Horn had.
Pacquiao’s drawing power was so huge even the undercard of the “Battle of Brisbane” got almost two million viewers.
Michael Conlan, who was fighting on just his second professional bout, overcame Jarrett Owen in the card’s second fight and it drew 1,867,000 spectators.
Artur Beterbiev’s 12th round knockout of Enrico Koelling for the vacant IBF World light heavyweight belt was the fifth most-watched fight in US cable drawing 1,725,00 viewers.