Wilder-Washington card averages 1.76M viewers on PBC on Fox

By Jeff Aranow: Last Saturday night’s Premier Boxing Champions on Fox card headlined by IBF heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder vs. Gerald Washington averaged 1.76 million viewers, according to Dan Rafael. The numbers are a slight dip from the 1.81 million viewers Wilder’s fight against Chris Arreola averaged on July 16 last year.

It’s not all that surprising that the Wilder vs. Washington didn’t bring in better numbers than the Wilder-Arreola fight, because Washington was a replacement opponent. Arreola is a better known heavyweight, who has been around for a long time and fought for a world title years ago against Vitali Klitschko.

The Wilder vs. Washington fight took place at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama. The 6’7” Wilder fought in a tentative manner for the first four rounds. In the 5th, Wilder came alive in knocking the 6’7” Washington down with a right hand to the head. Wilder quickly finished off Washington after he got back to his feet. It was a good ending, but the fight not a great one for the first four rounds.

There wasn’t much action for Wilder’s boxing fans in Birmingham to cheer about.

The undercard was a lot better. Jarrett Hurd beat Tony Harrison by a 9th round knockout to claim the vacant IBF junior middleweight title on the Wilder-Washington undercard. In the fight of the night, heavyweight Dominic Breazeale stopped Izuagbe Ugonoh by a 5th round knockout. In that fight, both guys visited the canvas. Breazeale was knocked down in round 4, and Ugonoh was dropped in round 3 and twice in round 5. It was an exciting fight. Ugonoh isn’t that well known of a heavyweight, but he showed in that fight that he’s got major punching power.

“PBC on Fox averaged 1.76M viewers Sat night,” said Dan Rafael on his Twitter. “Was distant last among network shows it was against: 48 Hours, Ransom, NBA, NBA Countdown & NHL. Wilder also headlined last #PBC on Fox card in July 2016 vs. Arreola. That show averaged 1.8M viewers. #boxing.”

Wilder’s numbers will likely improve once he takes on a good fighter like WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker. That’s a fight that could happen in the near future. Parker wants the fight, and Wilder is interested as well. The World Boxing Council ordered the Wilder vs. Bermane Stiverne fight to take place.

If the Wilder-Parker fight doesn’t take place next for Wilder, then he’s going to need to defend his WBC title against Stiverne. That’s going to be a hard fight for Wilder compared to his previous title defenses of his WBC belt against Eric Molina, Artur Szpilka, Johann Duhaupas, Chris Arreola and Washington. Stiverne has a lot of power, it’s going to require that Wilder moves a lot for him to win. If Wilder stops and trades for any length of time, he’ll be at risk of getting hit with one of Stiverne’s big left hooks.

“PBC on Fox cards: 1/23/16 Garcia-Guerrero 2.24M; 4/30/16 Ortiz-Berto II 1.6M; 7/16/16 Wilder-Arreola 1.8M; 2/25/17 Wilder-Wash 1.76M,” said Rafael.

Wilder vs. Washington is right up there with some of the other PBC cards in the past.