After an electrifying night at Minute Maid Park in Houston where more than 31,000 fans gathered to watch live on May 9, Canelo vs. Kirkland brought in a big number of viewers on HBO World Championship Boxing with an average viewership of 2,146,000 for the live airing on HBO and peaked at 2,296,000 viewers.
The Canelo vs. Kirkland numbers were no doubt helped by the massive aftermath of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.
Canelo vs. Kirkland is the top-performing bout on HBO’s flagship boxing platform since the Antonio Tarver-Bernard Hopkins light heavyweight title battle delivered 2,460,000 viewers in 2006. This also marked the Mexican superstar’s first appearance as a headliner on the HBO WCB platform.
“With more than 31,000 people coming to Minute Maid Park and more than 2.1 million tuning in to watch on HBO, Canelo Alvarez is quickly making the leap from the biggest boxing star of the future, to the biggest boxing star of the present,” said Oscar De La Hoya, Founder and President of Golden Boy Promotions. “Given his sizzling, fan-friendly performance in knocking out James Kirkland, attendance and viewership will only continue to soar. Boxing’s future is now.”
