With stiff competition from college football games and a mismatch in the main event, FOX’s boxing viewership predictably dipped Saturday night from its previous telecast.

Nielsen Media Research figures released Wednesday indicated that the network’s three-bout broadcast peaked at 1,492,000 viewers during the main event. That fight resulted in heavily favored Erislandy Lara knocking out Ramon Alvarez in the second round of their scheduled 12-round super welterweight championship match at The Armory in Minneapolis.

The Cuban-born Lara regained a vacant version of the WBA’s 154-pound championship by demolishing Alvarez, an older brother of Canelo Alvarez.

The entire telecast averaged 1,171,000 viewers. Those viewership numbers include those who watched on FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX Sports Streaming services.

FOX’s previous boxing broadcast drew a peak audience of 1,769,000 and an average audience of 1,727,000. That three-fight show featured heavyweight contender Adam Kownacki, who beat Chris Arreola by unanimous decision in their action-packed, 12-round main event August 3 from Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The opener of FOX’s telecast Saturday night, Cuban heavyweight prospect Frank Sanchez’s stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Victor Bisbal, averaged 951,000 viewers. The second fight of the tripleheader, a 10-round split draw between junior middleweights Sebastian Fundora and Jamontay Clark, attracted an average viewership of 1,075,000.

A college football game between 16th-ranked Auburn and 11th-ranked Oregon aired on ABC at the same time as FOX’s boxing show, which began at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. That game – which Auburn won, 27-21, by coming back to score a touchdown with nine seconds to go in the fourth quarter – was watched by an average of 6,863,000 viewers.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.