By Jake Donovan

Rob Brant managed to enjoy every facet of his first title defense.

The middleweight titlist returned to his home state of Minnesota on Friday, scoring an 11th round knockout of previously unbeaten Khasan Baysangurov in front of a sold-out crowd at Grand Casino in Hinckley, Minnesota. The bout marked his 12th career appearance at the venue, but his first both as a defending titlist and in an ESPN-televised main event.

The overall three-fight telecast averaged 704,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. The event peaked at 769,000 viewers, although specific viewership for each fight on the show wasn’t immediately available as this goes to publish.

Brant registered the first defense of the middleweight title he claimed in a landslide 12-round decision over Ryota Murata last October, which topped an ESPN+ livestream.

Ratings for his first headliner on ESPN’s flagship station were up more than 7% from its previous telecast, Jose Ramirez’s 140-pound title defending win over Jose Zepeda earlier this month. They were also slightly better than an ESPN telecast in the same exact time slot one year prior, when Raymundo Beltran scored an emotional 12-round win over Paulus Moses to claim a lightweight title.

That telecast drew 703,000 viewers, which—as was the case last Friday—also benefited from a strong network lead-in with live coverage of the annual NBA All-Star Weekend Celebrity game. The most recent edition drew 1.308 million viewers, well down from last year’s telecast which averaged nearly 1.7 million viewers.

Whereas last year’s boxing telecast retained just over 40% of the preceding audience, Friday’s card managed to carry more than 50% of the NBA-sponsored lead-in.

The event marked Top Rank’s third show this year live on ESPN’s flagship station, all coming within a span of just 13 days.

The 2019 debut came on February 2 was part of a “Super Saturday” pre-Super Bowl show, split between a live ESPN telecast and trailing ESPN+ livestream. The ESPN portion featured two title fights—Richard Commey’s two-round annihilation of Isa Chaniev to win a lightweight belt and featherweight titlist Oscar Valdez’s knockout win over Carmine Tommasone—which averaged 880,000 viewers, plus another 122,000 on ESPN Deportes.

Friday’s show drew an additional 67,000 on ESPN Deportes.

Also on the show: rising bantamweight prospect Joshua “Don’t Blink” Greer survived an early knockdown to stop Giovanni Escaner; and 2016 U.S. Olympian and current unbeaten super featherweight prospect Mikaela Mayer was impressive in an eight-round win over second-generation boxer Yareli Larios.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox