The Thrilla in Manila and Rumble in the Jungle title fights both had an audience of over 1 billion

Probably first and foremost

The fights were freely available in most TV places it was available - no PPV, subscription or anything else; have the TV network / channel, watch the fight.

Some of the best fights i remember back in the day I saw on "normal" TV, either BBC, or ITV in the UK. Those days will never be back, as everything is a business predicated on nickel and diming the max revenue and profit from everything.

 

I think it was just Muhammad Ali tbh. He was one of the most famous people on the planet really.

 

Probably fake numbers

 

Much less choice. No social media, not much else going on. Huge global event with household names.

 

Who released those numbers? Bob Arum?

No way there was a billion people watching those fights.

 

Yeah these numbers come from people like Don King and Bob Arum, who in reality had no idea who was watching.

They had Nielsen ratings from the US, something from Canada or western Europe maybe, but if it even aired in Africa, South America, and Asia they weren't getting any real data.

It's like the beginning of some of the big Tyson fights or others from that era where they would greet "viewers" from places like Libya, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, etc. It's just to make the actual viewers feel part of a global phenomenon.

 

Because Ali was so well known everybody was interested.Now only a minority know who Joshua,Fury and Wilder are and the rest only have a casual interest

 

Nonsense numbers is the answer.

For years, promoters in sport and entertainment, TV companies and the media generally have released the POTENTIAL audience for an event, and claimed it as real. Adding up the companies who provided some kind of coverage, and their total audience, might get you some of the way there but probably still not the billion.

The fact these events had wide media coverage would provide a smokescreen of truth.

Every four years, we get "2.5 billion people watch the Olympic opening ceremony" etc - utter rubbish with even a minor bit of investigation.

I have no doubt a lot of people have seen those fights down the years, but they would have registered on the all-time TV ratings in the US and UK if they were anywhere near it at the time - and they didn't.

 

The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1 billion viewers worldwide,[9][10] becoming the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time.[11] This included a record estimated 50 million viewers watching the fight pay-per-view on closed-circuit theatre TV.[6] which was the pre curser to pay per view at home, in some respects it is even more impressive when you think the people who did watch it on closed circuit theatre had to get in there car and drive to the cinema/ theatre after paying there $20 equivalent to $100 today as opposed to just turning the tv on in the comfort of your own home,The fight grossed an estimated $100 million (inflation-adjusted $500 million) in worldwide revenue.[

 

It was closed circuit in America but I think a lot of the world got it for free

 

Never said he wasnt a megastar