TNT Sports ‘The Fight’ Featuring Abdullah Mason vs. Albert Bell Delivers Big in Network Debut

There was plenty of buzz heading into Top Rank’s July 4 DAZN debut, which was also hosted by TNT Sports by way of their monthly shows titled The Fight. WBO lightweight champion Abdullah Mason delivered a thrilling 12^th-round knockout over Albert Bell and, as a result, delivered big numbers for TNT Sports and DAZN.

TNT Sports reported that the event did “…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.”

Along with that viewership across multiple platforms, TNT also reported the following:

“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 12^th 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. 

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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, while also finishing:

• #1 among all non-PPV events in video views during 2026
• #1 among all non-PPV events in engagements during 2026
• #2 among all non-PPV events in total impressions during 2026

Including pay-per-view events, The Fight: Abdullah Mason vs. Albert Bell ranked among the top 10 boxing events of 2026 in total social impressions.”

A lot can be dissected when it comes to these numbers, as they’re mostly a combined effort, but I will say that if it wasn’t successful, they wouldn’t be sending a press release about it. Network TV runs on advertising, so TNT Sports must’ve received great feedback from their advertisers, which would lead them to put out these numbers for the public to consume in a favorable way. Either way, this is great for boxing if network TV begins to get excited about the sport again.

TNT Sports, in partnership with DAZN, has its next card scheduled for August 1, when Lamont Roach Jr. faces William Zepeda for the vacant WBC lightweight title. An excellent matchup on paper that should deliver on fight night.

Abraham Gonzalez

Abraham Gonzalez is a 2x award-winning writer, International Boxing Hall of Fame voter, founder and publisher of FightsATW. His journalistic work has been published and used across several platforms, including online, network TV, and promotional companies. He is an alumnus of an American Public University and a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). Abraham was the Managing Editor for NYFights, Big Fight Weekend, and contributed to The Ring Magazine, FanSidedMMA, and ProBoxTV.

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