Turner Sports (TNT) has revealed that over 650,000 viewers on average watched the debut of the new "The Fight" series in partnership with DAZN. And, the broadcast that featured Abdullah Mason kayoing Albert Bell in the main event on July 4th peaked at over 820,000 viewers.
TNT Sports (in the U.S.) is touting the audience numbers for the debut of their new boxing partnership for a fight series with DAZN. The new series called the "The Fight" was last Saturday July 4th in Cleveland. And, it saw hometown star, WBO lightweight champ Abdullah Mason stop veteran Albert Bell in the 12th round.
Turner Sports released the official audience numbers on Thursday afternoon, which showed that a solid average of 650,000 viewers watched the entire card and the Mason main event peaked with over 820,000 watching,
From the official release,
"TNT Sports and DAZN delivered a strong multiplatform audience for The Fight: Abdullah Mason vs. Albert Bell over Independence Day Weekend, with more than 3.2 million viewers reached across TNT, truTV and DAZN for its boxing coverage, including Thursday’s press conference, Friday’s weigh-in, the 30-minute pre-fight Bout Camp special, the pre- and post-fight studio shows and Saturday’s stacked night of fights.
The live championship card peaked with 820,000 viewers on TNT, truTV and DAZN from 11:45 p.m.-12 a.m. ET during the main event, where Abdullah Mason successfully defended his WBO lightweight title with a come-from-behind 12th Round TKO victory over Albert Bell. The full event averaged 661,000 viewers across TNT, truTV and DAZN, up 31% vs. comparable boxing cable telecasts in 2025 (503,000 average viewers) and up 227% versus TNT's average audience in the comparable July time period in 2025.
Across TNT Sports and DAZN social platforms on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube, fans embraced the event at scale, generating 139.7 million impressions, 108.1 million video views and 5.2 million engagements. The event ranked as the No. 1-performing non-pay-per-view boxing event across social platforms since March 2026..."
Now, some qualifiers in the measuring and the touting;
First, Nielsen now uses "out of home measurement" starting three years ago that was not previously available. This pertains to use of a "portable people meter" instead of a stationary set top box plugged into a TV. And, it allows measurement never before calculated, when someone is at another home or sports bar, etc. watching as a Neilsen viewer.
This measurement has inflated audience numbers by approximately 15% or more on most live sporting events compared to audience numbers before 2020, in most cases representing millions more added to the numbers.
Also, Turner and Nielsen are using "Big Data Analytics" to measure to streaming numbers of viewers on devices, where many younger viewers now watch mostly, if not exclusively. And, those "Big Data" numbers aren't completely accepted as being a true measure of more audience.
And in the release above, Turner is combining TNT's audience with truTV's audience which was simulcasting "The Fight" debut and will continue to do so. Turner frequently does this with things like college football, college basketball, MLB broadcasts and NASCAR racing broadcasts.
Now, there is no disputing that boxing has had a void on main stream linear broadcasting over the past year, since ESPN dropped Top Rank Boxing last July after an eight year agreement. That void has ended nearly 50 years of fans being able to see boxing on network TV channels, ESPN, USA Network or other linear channels.
And, also, Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) previously had an agreement with over the air network, powerhouse Fox Sports for live championship fights, but that faded and was not renewed after 2022.
So, the fact that Top Rank could get back on a more mainstream linear channel that also televises the other sports above to help promote and garner audience is an obvious plus.
And, Mason's performance and win helped bolster things as the main event dramatically concluded.
Turner and DAZN hope to build on the drama and the audience with the second of "The Fight" series coming August 1st, when veteran Lamont Roach of Washington D.C. and top contender William Zepeda of Mexico battle for the WBC version of the lightweight crown on August 1st in Las Vegas.
And, it's entirely possible that the winner of that fight might meet Mason down the road in a unification battle at 135 lb,
