Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke’s showdown on Sky Sports this Easter was nothing short of a slugfest, pulling in a horde of viewers making it one of the most viewed boxing showdowns in the last decade on the platform.
Tagged ‘Bad Blood’, these two unbeaten heavyweights couldn’t be split after going toe-to-toe, laying it all out in a brutal twelve-round war that’s has every boxing fan and expert calling it a legendary British heavyweight tussle.
The event, thrown together by BOXXER and blasted out of London’s O2 Arena, grabbed a peak audience of 746,000 for the main event, with an average of 438,000 glued to their screens throughout the four-hour brawl fest, reaching over 1.7 million viewers.
These staggering numbers slot Wardley vs. Clarke into the fifth spot for most-watched boxing showdowns on Sky Sports over the past decade, trailing behind only a few others, and setting a new record for heavyweight tussles.
In the run-up, fans got a load of top-notch hype content from Sky Sports, including a tense standoff in ‘The Gloves Are Off’ hosted by Johnny Nelson and a sneak peek into the fighters’ camps in ‘Behind The Ropes’.
The undercard was stacked with jaw-dropping fights too – Chris Kongo took down Florian Marku, Viddal Riley defended his English Cruiserweight Title against Mikael Lawal, Ben Whittaker trounced Leon Wilings, Callum Simspon delivered a knockout blow to Dulla Mbabe, and Alen Babic sent Steve Robinson packing.
Ben Shalom, the head honcho at BOXXER, was all about the hype, saying Sunday’s clash is up there with the greatest British heavyweight brawls ever. BOXXER’s kicking off the year on a high note, promising more electrifying events packed with action in 2024.
Sky Sports’ Rob Selmes couldn’t contain his excitement over the heavyweight title clash, applauding the sheer guts shown by both fighters and the massive crowd it pulled in.
After already rolling out some top-notch events in 2024 like Jonas-Mayer, Buatsi-Azeez, and the Wardley-Clarke rumble, BOXXER and Sky Sports are gearing up for another big night on May 11th with Lauren Price taking on Jessica McCaskill for the Welterweight World Titles in Cardiff.