By Jake Donovan

Gennady Golovkin had more competition from other sports than he did in the ring, yet still managed to score with viewers.

The unbeaten middleweight looked every bit the 60-1 favorite over Marco Antonio Rubio, scoring a 2nd round knockout in their Oct. 18 headliner in front of a sold-out StubHub Center in Carson, California. Despite going up head-to-head with a down-to-the-wire college football thriller, the blowout managed to register 1.3 million viewers, with an average of 908,000 households on first live viewing.

The 1.3 million overall average viewership is good for the second highest rated fight of 2014, right behind Julio Cesar Chavez Jr's rematch win over Bryan Vera in March.

The televised co-feature saw a breakout performance from undefeated Nicholas ‘Axe Man’ Walters, who chopped down four-division champ Nonito Donaire in six rounds. Their bout drew an average of 748,000 households on first viewing, and 1.068 viewers among live and peak views.

Both legs of Saturday’s doubleheader are among the top five most watched live cable fights of 2014, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Golovkin’s ratings pull is more in line with his incredible run in 2013, when he emerged as a fresh face among the HBO boxing roster. His three appearance run last year on HBO was capped by an 8th round stoppage of Curtis Stevens, which drew more than 1.4 million viewers.

The lone exception to his emerging star power came in late July, when his three-round knockout of Daniel Geale failed to hit the ‘two-comma’ (one million) mark in viewership. The July 26 card was the first in four weeks, lacking a strong lead in campaign in addition to serving in the middle of the summer.

Last weekend’s doubleheader was the first piece of boxing action from HBO in more than two months, yet the show benefited from a healthy amount of promotion in the preceding weeks. Also encouraging to viewers was the mouthwatering matchup between Walters and Donaire, which many pegged as a pick-‘em fight heading into the night.

The bout between Golovkin and Rubio was deemed a foregone conclusion, even more so after Rubio failed to make weight during Friday’s weigh-in. The struggles at the scales didn’t affect interest in the card, nor did it submit to what else was on the dial. A far more competitive battle was to be found on ABC, where #1 ranked Florida State—also the defending champions—rallied from behind to eke out a 31-27 win over #7 ranked Notre Dame, in what became the highest rated college football game of 2014 and the best overnight rating for college football in nearly two years.

Interest in Golovkin’s next move among, however, was enough to prompt viewers to tune in.

Golovkin has now scored three knockouts in as many fights on the year, and 18 straight overall dating back to 2008. The win advanced his record to 31-0 (28KOs).

While last weekend’s show was the first in more than two months for HBO, the network utilizes Golovkin’s ring return as a springboard for a compelling fall schedule. The next telecast on HBO comes November 8, when Sergey Kovalev and Bernard Hopkins square off in a 12-round light heavyweight unification bout. The weekend kicks off a stretch where boxing will be offered on HBO and its accompanying outlets (HBO2, HBO PPV) on six straight weekends.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com, as well as the Records Keeper for the Transnational Boxing Ratings Board and a member of Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox