Filipino Boxers’ Bouts Most Viewed On U.S. Cable In 2017

Filipino boxers Manny Pacquiao and Jerwin Ancajas’ combined bouts in 2017 have drawn the highest viewership of 6 million views in one day alone in the United States cable television, according to a report by Inquirer.

While Pacquiao, a multi-time World Champion, may already be old in the boxing world, his drawing power to his fans in watching his bouts has not changed that much.

Yahoo Sports’ writer Kevin Iole, as quoted by the Inquirer report, said that Pacquiao’s bout against Jeff Horn, which he lost via unanimous decision was the most-watched fight on the U.S. cable when it was aired on ESPN.

In a separate report by Forbes, the Pacquiao-Horn bout was 2017’s boxing upset of the year. The report said that despite Horn walking in as the underdog of the fight, the Australian boxer fought with a lot of heart. In fact, his punches landed many times on Pacquiao’s body and made an impact. Hence, getting a win against one of the most decorated boxers in the history of the sport.

The Pacquiao-Horn bout, dubbed as the “Battle of Brisbane,” drew almost 4 million viewers. The viewers saw how the hometown hero Horn clinched the WBO World welterweight belt.

Meanwhile, Ancajas’ fight against Teiru Kinoshita, which served as a co-main event of the Pacquiao-Horn bout, was the second most-watched fight on U.S. cable, as per the same report.

Ancajas, who gave Kinoshita a seven-round beating, retained his IBF World super flyweight title. His fight drew almost 2.3 million viewers. After his boxing match with Kinoshita, boxing promoter Bob Arum lauded the tenacity of the boxer. Arum, as quoted in the boxingscene report, said Ancajas has a killer instinct inside the ring and that the boxer is a great finisher, citing Ancajas’ record of 28-1 record, with 19 knockouts.

Arum even compared Ancajas to fellow Filipino Pacquiao and said that the two have similarities when inside the ring. The promoter, who had followed Ancajas’ bouts in Australia and Macau, believes that the Filipino boxer has a bright future ahead of him.

While the two Filipino boxers’ fates was not the same during the Battle of Brisbane, both of their fights combined for an almost 6.16 million views on cable in just one afternoon. And that is an unprecedented feat.