By Jake Donovan





Timothy Bradley Jr. was an unstoppable force in the ring on Saturday, tearing through Brandon Rios en route to a 9th round knockout at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

As it turned out, his only competition that evening would come from the beast that is SEC (Southeastern Conference) college football. The HBO-televised main event fell prey to the highest-rated college football game of 2015, with #4 Alabama's 30-16 win over second-ranked LSU drawing over 11.1 million viewers on CBS. The game more than doubled the average viewership of Saturday evening primetime college football viewership.





The HBO World Championship Boxing headliner took a hit has a result, but still managing to draw an average of 910,000 viewers. The bout peaked at 1.026 million viewers.





The number is respectable considering it went against peak season for college football viewership, but was also a disappointment at the box office, drawing just 5,106 in attendance. Bradley's in-ring accomplishments have always been taken into consideration for big fights far more than his never developing into a box-office draw.





A virtuouso performance turned in by the two-time welterweight titlist was enough to demand a big fight for 2016, far outshining the ratings results. Still, it was a 19% drop from Bradley's last ring appearance, with his 12-round win over Jessie Vargas averaging 1.121 million viewers to cap a strong 1st half run for HBO.





For Rios, it was a near 28% drop from his last ring appearance, when he forced Mike Alvarado to quit after three rounds of their tiebreaking clash in January. The tail end of their trilogy pulled in a healthy 1.252 million viewers in the first HBO boxing telecast of 2015.





Going nearly 10 months between in-ring appearances didn't grant Rios any favors, nor did his struggles to make weight and then gaining 16% of natural bodyweight in the 30 hours from the weigh-in to fight night.





That said, there isn't any version of Rios - a former lightweight champ who's produced mixed results at 140 and 147 - that was going to beat present-day Bradley. His subpar performance was enough to convince himself to call it a career after the bout.





Quite the opposite is true for Bradley, whose promoter Bob Arum seeks big game for his welterweight titlist. The always-chiseled Californian is being considered for a third bout with the legendary Manny Pacquiao, who Arum insists will have the final fight of his career next April as he plans a Congressional run in his native Philippines.





Bradley scored an upset - although widely disputed - split decision win over Pacquiao in their June '12 meet, with the Filipino southpaw gaining revenge last April.





Should a third fight not materialize, Top Rank is also looking into matching Bradley with Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, should the superstar from Mexico prevail over reigning World middleweight champ Miguel Cotto next weekend in Las Vegas. Politicially, the most likely scenario - if Bradley wants to avoid being stripped of his welterweight title - is a mandatory defense versus unbeaten Sadam Ali.





Opening the telecast, featherweight titlist Vasyl Lomachenko (5-1, 3KOs) tore through overmatched Romulo Koasicha in ten one-sided rounds. Their bout drew an average of 585,000 viewers, peaking at 657,000 viewers.





Lomachenko - a two-time Olympic Gold medalist for Ukraine who won a featherweight title in his third pro fight - made his second live appearance on HBO World Championship Boxing. His network debut came in just his second pro bout, dropping a 12-round split decision to Orlando Salido in his first crack at a featherweight title. Their bout drew 1 million viewers, though supported by Julio Cesar Chavez Jr's rematch win over Bryan Vera, which served as the network's highest-rated event of 2014.





The ratings performance for Saturday's co-feature was on par with Lomachenko's 12-round title winning effort over Gary Russell, Jr. last June. Their bout - which was the second leg of a Showtime Championship Boxing tripleheader - averaged 578,000 viewers.





All ratings data provided by Nielsen Media Research .





Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox