By Terence Dooley
 
Carl Frampton stopped California's Chris Avalos in five rounds at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena on Saturday night in the maiden defence of his IBF Super bantamweight title.  The fight was terrestrial channel ITV’s first foray into boxing for over five years and a rare case of a free-to-air world title boxing match. 
 
Frampton, 20-0 (14), battered the challenger en route to retaining his IBF title and called for a fight with Scott Quigg, who holds the WBA World title.  The Belfast-based boxer strengthened his case by posting relatively healthy viewing figures for the fight, which took place at 10.50pm, hardly prime time, and underlined his popularity by packing out another big venue. 
 
Viewing figures for the fight peaked at 1.9 million with an average of around 1.1 million (information courtesy of @TVRatingsUK and @LiamHamilton16—via BARB) and will provide food for thought for the channel’s executives. 

[Editor's Note: The bout also aired live on AWE (A Wealth of Entertainment) in the United States. Ratings data is not yet available as this goes to publish.—JD]
 
Coupled with his healthy gates, the healthy TV ratings will help the 28-year-old in his quest nail down a unification fight with either Quigg, 30-0-2 (22) or WBC holder Leo Santa Cruz, 29-0-1 (17) before trying to lure Guillermo Rigondeaux, the division's true Champion, over to Ireland for another big night of boxing.
 
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