Gervonta Davis showing admiration to Naoya Inoue (video)

One Sunday Japanese fight fans had the chance to see a a notable on Fuji TV. The main event saw WBA "regular" Bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (17-0, 15) [井上 尚弥] defend his title, with a 70 second win over Dominican challenger Juan Carlos Payano (20-2, 9), whilst the chief supporting bout saw WBC Light Flyweight champion Kenshiro (14-0, 8) [拳四朗] stop Milan Melindo (37-4, 13).

Today the TV numbers for the Kanto region we released.

The broadcast averaged 8.4% of the Kanto region and peaked at an impressive 12.6% of the audience share, with some speculating that the short length of the main event may have lead to a lower peak than expected. On the flipside of that Inoue's quick win may help increase numbers for future fights the fans now knowing he could take opponents out at any moment, and he has certainly seen a lot of press talking about the bout, which may also help intrigue in future bouts.

In raw numbers that's around 3.6 million watching on average from the Kanto region with a peak of 5.5 million viewers.



Naoya Inoue draws huge viewership on tape delay (again)


This past weekend we saw WBA "Super", IBF and Ring Magazine Bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (20-0, 17) [井上 尚弥] retain his titles with a 7th round win over stubborn Australian Jason Moloney (21-2, 18), who really did show incredible toughness.

The first broadcasting in Japan was live on premium TV channel WOWOW, a channel that is somewhat similar to HBO or Showtime in the US. It's a premium subscription service, that combines high level content, such as movies and live sport.

The second, and more interesting broadcast, was on Fuji TV, a free to air channel in the Kanto region. It's Fuji TV that have backed Inoue heavily since his third professional bout and is a terrestrial channel, for our UK viewers think of it as ITV or channel 4. Although it was free on Fuji TV it wasn't live. Instead it was on tape delay around 12 hours after the original broadcasting. This meant it had a prime time slot on one of the biggest free to air channels in Japan.

Despite the tape delay the bout has been an instant rating success. In Kanto the bout got an average audience of 10.6%. That number is genuinely insane for a bout on tape delay, and is a massive increase on what Fuji have been showing in the same time slot.

The last 4 week average for Fuji in that same time slot has been 5.9%, giving this an increase of almost 5% over those recent weeks.

Notable this isn't a one off. Other Inoue bouts shown on tape delay have also drawn huge numbers, such as his bout with his bout against Emmanuel Rodriguez also drawing over 10% on tape delay.

Whilst it is a lower number that those that tuned in for Inoue's 2019 clash with Nonito Donaire, which was shown live on Fuji TV and NHK BS8K, it is still a number that genuinely dwarves numbers typically seen in the US and the UK.

Gotta make it a point every time when these news are posted. This is the numbers for the Kanto region - which is basically Tokyo, Yokohama and surroundings. Out 40mil people living in the Kanto area, 5mil had watched Inoue knock out Payano that night.

 

I give Twink a lot of respect for this. I watched the video last night and he immediately saw through what the reporter was doing and pulled him up on it

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I didn't see the original quote from Inoue but, like Twink, I knew he wouldn't have said something like that. I don't ever recalling seeing him disrespect anyone, especially without provocation, let alone a fighter who has previously publicly praised him

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Yeah

Me too