Bob Arum and Top Rank will be extremely pleased with the TV ratings performance of Terence Crawford vs Jose Benavidez no doubt.

The bout scored a 1.8 metered market which, in Laymon’s terms, made it the highest rated American boxing telecast this year for viewers.

It was also ESPN’s second highest rated boxing match ever after Manny Pacquiao vs Jeff Horn where Australian Horn scored an upset win.

These growing numbers continues to show that Arum and Disney’s plan of growing the sport of boxing once again in the US is working.

In many ways, the boxing market and audience in the US was shrunk in the past for various distribution reasons.

But with the likes of ESPN, Fox, Showtime and DAZN all now in the game showing quality boxing action and content on a consistent basis, we are at the start of something very special over the next five or six years ahead one suspects.

Similar viewing figures records have been broken this year in the UK boxing market too.

All in all, boxing continues to get stronger and stronger as a sport.

The ESPN+ app that Top Rank show boxing content and live fights on also passed the one million paid subscribers mark recently in its very first five months of existence.

An incredible stat really.

(Photo Credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank)