Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke’s epic heavyweight clash recorded a massive television audience on Sky Sports this Easter Sunday making it one of the platform’s highest-rating boxing events in the past decade.
Billed as ‘Bad Blood’, the unbeaten rivals could not be separated on the night as they put everything on the line in a thrilling 12-round contest that is already being described as one of the greatest British heavyweight fights of all time.
The BOXXER promoted event, live from London’s O2 Arena, attracted a peak audience of 746,000 for the main event – with an average audience of 438,000 tuning in across the four hour broadcast and a reach of over 1.7million.
These impressive figures make Wardley and Clarke’s battle for the British and Commonwealth Titles the fifth-most watched boxing event on Sky Sports in the last 10 years behind only Eubank-Williams, Shields-Marshall, Khan-Vargas and Taylor-Catterall, and mark the biggest audience for a heavyweight fight.
Fans were treated to first-class shoulder programming from Sky Sports in the build up to the event including a tense face-off hosted by Johnny Nelson in ‘The Gloves Are Off’ and a look behind the scenes into each fighters’ training camp in ‘Behind The Ropes’.
Adding to the excitement on the night, a stacked undercard featured a series of mouthwatering clashes that saw Chris Kongo overcome welterweight rival Florian Marku, Viddal Riley retain his English cruiserweight title against Mikael Lawal, Ben Whittaker drop and dominate Leon Wilings, Callum Simspon score a showreel knockout win over Dulla Mbabe, and Alen Babic stop Steve Robinson.
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Frazer Clarke and Fabio Wardley each give their reasons why they want a rematch following the draw in their heavyweight clash on Sunday night
Ben Shalom, BOXXER Founder and CEO, said: “What we witnessed on Sunday was one of the greatest British heavyweight fights of all time. At BOXXER we are committed to growing the sport to new audiences and giving our fighters the biggest possible platform to perform. The numbers are incredible. It shows the huge potential and appetite for boxing in the UK and Ireland. We’ve had an amazing start to the year and we look forward to delivering more massive nights with unmissable action in 2024.”
Rob Selmes, Sky Sports Director of Rights, said: “It was great to see such a thrilling fight for the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles, immense bravery from both fighters and huge numbers tuning in to watch. A compelling card was part of a fantastic weekend of live sport on Sky Sports, with millions of sports fans enjoying our coverage and being taken closer to all the action.”
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Frazer Clarke has called for a rematch with Fabio Wardley after their British Heavyweight title fight draw at the O2 at the weekend, with Clarke adamant he was close to victory
Having already delivered a series of spectacular events in 2024 including Jonas-Mayer, Buatsi-Azeez and Wardley-Clarke, the BOXXER and Sky Sports schedule continues on Saturday, May 11th with Lauren Price challenging Jessica McCaskill for Welterweight World Titles in Cardiff.
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