As evidenced by CBS and Fox having Saturday primetime boxing cards in back-to-back weeks, it is "clear HBO is now just a bit player in the sport," and in an effort to keep any momentum going, promoters have to keep putting "competitive fights together and include as many of them as possible on network television and basic cable," according to Kevin Iole of YAHOO SPORTS. Fox carried the PBC card featuring Deontay Wilder-Gerald Washington last Saturday (1.86 million viewers), and this Saturday, CBS carries a Showtime Championship Boxing card featuring the "hotly anticipated" Keith Thurman-Danny Garcia bout. It is a match that in the past "might have automatically gone onto HBO." The telecast marks only the second primetime boxing match for CBS in "nearly half a century." However, boxing still "doesn’t get the kind of ratings that will get it a regular, or even semi-regular, place on network TV." While Showtime is "clearly outpacing HBO in terms of commitment and quality of bouts presented, if not also viewership," it drew only 779,000 viewers for its main event of Adrien Broner-Adrian Granados on Feb. 18 -- and that figure was its best boxing audience in 25 months. HBO’s most-viewed fight last year was Gennady Golovkin-Dominic Wade with 1.33 million viewers, but only four bouts on HBO "surpassed one million viewers" in '16. Showtime had zero bouts cross that mark. But boxing can still have "somewhat of a revival by taking advantage of the many good matches that can be made and guaranteeing them the widest possible exposure" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 2/27).
