photo: Lukie

According to industry leader, Showbuzzdaily Andre Ward vs. Paul Smith on BET pulled in less than stellar ratings as it netted 323,000 viewers. The reason this is alarming is that a telecast of David Lemieux defeated Hassan N’Dam for IBF middleweight title pulled 163,000 viewers with a 1/3 of the amount of subscribers.

So what am I saying, essentially Andre Ward vs. Paul Smith pulled the ratings of your average ‘Friday Night Fights’ type card or Fox Sports 1 ‘Golden Boy Live’ event which is a far cry from the lively crowd that arrived in Oracle Arena on fight night. Whatever the reason, the news is alarming as it appears that those who are not with a premier channel, HBO or Showtime, or have the Premier Boxing Champions machine behind you simply do not get the same push.