Walter-Marriaga television ratings

The HBO telecast featuring bouts between Nicholas Walters and Felix Verdejo struggled to bring viewers to the table Saturday night. The fight staged at Madison Square Garden in NYC drew in a crowd of over 3,000 in attendance and an average viewership on HBO of 562K, a number that is the lowest of the year, and one of the lowest in recent years.

What was even stranger about the telecast was that the co-main event between rising Puerto Rican star Felix Verdejo and Ivan Najara had more viewers than the main event. Verdejo-Najara brought in an average of 611K viewers while the Walters-Donaire fight had 588K viewers. Both numbers are extremely low for an HBO card however it was the debut of Verdejo, and Walters has yet to prove to be a star with selling potential. The number could have also been low because it was going head to head with the heavyweight championship bout featuring Deontay Wilder, though those numbers didn't do to well either.