ESPN’s live coverage of the controversial July 1 Manny Pacquiao-Jeff Horn welterweight championship boxing match was a knockout on the ratings front, averaging 2.8 million viewers despite the main event starting well after midnight on the East Coast.

The fight, which ended in a controversial decision win for Horn, was Pacquiao’s first non-pay-per-view appearance in eight years and marked a strategic move by boxing promotion company Top Rank to offer quality, competitive boxing matches featuring high-profile champions on basic cable.

Top Rank in August will offer fights featuring junior lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (Aug. 5) and Terence Crawford (Aug. 19). Both fighters have had the majority of their prior fights air on HBO.

Top Rank president Todd duBoef recently spoke to Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the controversial Pacquiao-Horn fight, the company’s decision to move premiere fights from premium television and pay-per-view to ESPN, and what it means for boxing’s future. An edited transcript follows.

MCN:What did you think about the Pacquiao-Horn decision?
Todd duBoef: I wasn’t in Australia for the fight, but everyone who was there in person thought it was a very close fight. As you know, a lot of times when you’re there in person it feels different than when you watch it on television. From my perspective, watching it on television, I thought Manny clearly won. More importantly, I thought it was dramatic and terrific television.

MCN:Were you satisfied with the ratings performance of the fight?
TD: The numbers were off the charts, especially when you take into consideration that the fight was happening in Australia as well as the time of night the fight took place. Timing-wise the fight was set up for the traditional pay-per-view window and not set up for linear distribution. [The fighters] walked in the ring at 12:03 [a.m. ET] which is not in the primetime window that most big sports events take place. I think it shows how powerful the sport is on a global basis.

MCN:How did Top Rank come to the decision to distribute the Pacquiao fight on ESPN instead of via pay-per-view or on the premium cable channels?
TD: We’ve had different conversations with different people as it related to where our product is best shown. My theory has been that boxing needs a 360-degree television perspective and needs to be presented more on a main sports platform. When I say 360, I’m talking about not just the live event but all the content associated with the live event, and I think what ESPN did was fantastic. I think their promotion in advance of the fight, their post-fight coverage and everything they did actually presented boxing like the major sport that it is. The general sports fans are on the [linear and digital] platforms. They’re not necessarily on the premium platforms.

MCN:With two Top Rank-promoted championship fights scheduled for August on ESPN featuring fighters that have fought most of their careers on HBO, is this a trend for Top Rank, in terms of offering its big boxing events on linear television?
TD: Yes, I would say more of a trend. I think to have that platform — which turns the lights on for the sport — is fantastic. For us to use our assets toward turning those lights on for the sport on a consistent basis, not just once every six or eight months, is important for the long-term health and awareness of the product.

MCN:Having said that, there’s already talk about a rematch of the Pacquiao-Horn fight. Is that a possibility since this was such a gripping fight, and would you look toward pay-per-view distribution for that one?
TD: I think there’s obviously a natural conversation about that. Everybody that watched that fight was entertained. The fight had an ebb and flow to it and it was dramatic. I think people were a little disappointed in the decision, but it got people talking about the sport, which was good. We haven’t talked to Manny — he initially said yes [to a rematch] but at the end of the day he has a real job as a politician so when he’s ready we’ll have that conversation. After that if we go forward, then we can talk about whether we’ll be back on the same platform.

Four marquee boxing and UFC pay-per- view events over the next two months could salvage what has been an otherwise weak year for the category.

After generating more than $500 million in revenue last year — some $400 million from just the May 2, 2015 Floyd Mayweather- Manny Pacquiao welterweight title fight — the live PPV-event category has garnered less than half of that take through the first 10 months of 2016, industry sources said.

Distributors hope a flurry of big PPV events in November and December will help pad the category’s revenue take. The latest addition to the PPV category is the Dec. 30 return of UFC star Ronda Rousey to the octagon, more than a year after her shocking loss to Holly Holm in last November’s UFC 193.

UFC CARRYING THE LOAD

The show joins UFC’s Nov. 12 PPV event from New York’s Madison Square Garden, which will feature popular UFC fighter Conor McGregor. In Demand senior vice president of programming and business development Mark Boccardi said that the appearance of Rousey and McGregor in two of the final three UFC PPV events -- the MMA outfit will also distribute its UFC 206 event on Dec. 10 -- will cap off what has been one of the most lucrative years for the UFC in terms of PPV revenue, although he would not disclose specifics.

“Clearly, this is a year where the UFC is helping the entire category,” Boccardi said. “Everyone sees that boxing is down — we had no Mayweather and one Pacquaio fight so far [this past April against Timothy Bradley Jr.] — so the UFC’s really strong performance is good for the overall health of the business. The events feature two tentpole athletes for PPV in Rousey and McGregor — the two are by far the biggest UFC PPV stars — and the crossover appeal that Ronda has you can’t overstate.”

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Two high-profile PPV boxing events will also take place within two weeks of each other in November. This Saturday ([Nov. 5) Pacquiao will step into the PPV ring for a fight against WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas, while Nov. 19 will pit Sergey Kovalev against Andre Ward in a battle of undefeated light heavyweight boxers.

Boxing promotion company Top Rank, which is distributing the Pacquiao-Vargas fight, isn’t concerned about cannibalization, given the back-to-back-to-back marquee PPV events, company president Todd duBoef said.

DAILY DOC SERIES KICKS OFF

Top Rank recently turned to the Web to promote the fight. The network last week launched ALL IN: Pacquiao-Vargas, a daily documentary series on Top Rank’s Facebook page and Twitter feed that it said will give boxing fans an inside look at each fighter’s daily preparations.

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HBO will push the lion’s share of its promotional efforts for the Kovalev-Ward fight to the week before the event in an effort to avoid the marketing noise from the Pacquiao-Vargas and UFC 205 events. While there is a concern about potential cannibalization of viewers, HBO vice president of programming Tony Walker said the network is confident its event would appeal to boxing fans looking for a competitive matchup between undefeated fighters.

“There are some [cannibalization] concerns, but we think our fight is of a quality that will make people watch it,” Walker said.