By Jake Donovan

The recent Showtime-televised tripleheader of super welterweight title fights appealed to boxing fans, as the network posted its second-most watched boxing telecast of 2016.

The May 21 show from The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas saw Erislandy Lara top Vanes Martirosayan in their title fight rematch, along with Jermall and Jermell Charlo becoming the first set of twin boxers in history to simultaneously reign as titlists in the same weight class.

Nielsen Media Research results indicate that Lara-Martirosyan II – the evening’s main event - averaged 491,000 viewers, just a few thousand shy of the most watched Showtime fight of 2016 when Deontay Wilder iced Artur Szpilka in nine rounds this past January. The 12-round rematch peaked at 550,000 viewers, a welcome number from the network considering it came at the tail end of a 3-½ hour-long telecast and went up against playoff games in both the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL).

Lara and the Charlos all posted their best performing televised bouts in Showtime’s capacity. The main event was a 17% improvement from Lara’s last appearance on the network, when he thoroughly outboxed Austin Trout (who dropped a competitive decision to Jermall Charlo in the May 21 chief support) over 12 rounds in their Dec. ’13 title fight.

Saturday’s offering is a 17% improvement from Showtime’s previous headlining bout, when Badou Jack was held to a controversial draw versus Lucian Bute in their April 30 super middleweight title fight.

The opening bout of the tripleheader saw Jermell Charlo come from behind to score an 8th round knockout of John Jackson. The win netted him a vacant super welterweight title, the first time ever that twin brothers simultaneously held separate belts in the same weight class, and just the third twin brother act overall to enjoy overlapping title reigns, joining the Galaxy brothers (Khaosai and Kaokor) and the Garcias (Ramon and Raul) on that very short list.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Follow his shiny new Twitter account: @JakeNDaBox_v2