By Terence Dooley

Carl Frampton’s IBF Super bantamweight title defence against Alejandro Gonzalez Junior in El Paso, Texas on Saturday night brought in a higher terrestrial TV audience than his fifth-round TKO win over Chris Avalos earlier this year.

It was shown live on ITV here in the U.K., his second fight on the network, and went head-to-head with Sky TV's Manchester Arena bill.

The popular Irishman hit a peak of 2.4 million at 10.55pm, with an average of 1.7 million in total (C/O @SportOnTheBox), which edges out the 1.1m (1.9 peak) he netted back in February.  Down twice in the first round, Frampton (21-0, 14 KOs) rallied to earn a deserved decision win.

Barry McGuigan, his manager, told the Belfast Telegraph that his charge brought in around 2,000,000 viewers Stateside; he also defended the performance and result when speaking to the publication.

“I'm aware of the criticism and the sources and I'm not going to waste my time,” he said.  “I know how good Carl Frampton is and how good he is going to become.  We had 2.5 million UK viewers, two million viewers in the States and we had 69 percent of the audience in Northern Ireland and those figures speak for themselves.”

He added: “We know Carl was not at his very best, but he recovered and won nine or 10 of the 12 rounds and the Americans loved him and want him back.  We have a path for Carl and we know he is going to go down as an all-time great fighter.”

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