By Jake Donovan

Judging by the ratings, it seems that a lot of fans missed out on a main event that could serve as the biggest upset of the year.

A special Wednesday edition of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on ESPN drew an average of just 428,000 viewers, with the telecast once again met with a lot of competition in the sports world. On a night where Fox Sports 1 raked in a record-high ratings thanks to its coverage of Major League Baseball playoffs, the ESPN boxing telecast was topped by journeyman Aron Martinez scoring a major upset in a 10-round decision win over Devon Alexander in Glendale, Arizona.

The bout marked the second time Martinez has served as the B-side of a PBC headliner, coming off of a hard-fought narrow points loss to Robert Guerrero in June. Their bout topped a special Saturday afternoon edition of PBC on ESPN, drawing just over 1 million viewers.

Chances are, Martinez will land in a higher profile bout on the strength of his past two performances. Having entered Wednesday’s bout as much as a 30-1 underdog in some sports books, there also stands a good chance oddsmakers will no longer cast him off as a no-hoper.

Alexander was fighting for the first time on a PBC telecast, primarily because it was his first bout of 2015. The former two-division champ had been out of the ring since a 12-round loss to Amir Khan, which came last December.

A win would have put Alexander somewhere in the lower rung of top-level welterweight bouts to made just within the PBC circuit. Having suffered his second straight loss and bearing greater resemblance to a fighter on the decline rather than one on the rebound, the latest setback could serve as the proverbial nail in the coffin of a once-promising career.

Opening the show, recently crowned featherweight titlist Lee Selby turned away a strong challenge from former three-division champ Fernando Montiel, scoring a 12-round decision. The bout marked the first trek to the United States for the rangy boxer from Wales, who claimed the crown in an upset win over Evgeny Gradovich earlier this year.

Another Wednesday edition of PBC on ESPN is in store for its next presentation, which will come November 25 live from Hialeah, Florida. The pre-Thanksgiving telecast is headlined by Erislandy Lara in a 12-round super welterweight bout. The opponent is still being finalized, but his TV-challenging style, coupled with the forthcoming holiday doesn’t figure to bode well for the series as a whole.

The three previous editions of PBC on ESPN all aired in primetime on Saturday evenings, each growing in viewership.

The series high came on August 29, with an average of more than 1.2 million viewers tuning in for a terrific featherweight clash, in which Leo Santa Cruz scored a well-earned decision over former three-division champ Abner Mares. The bout was paired up with a super bantamweight slugfest, in which Mexico’s Julio Ceja rose from a knockdown to drop and stop countryman Hugo Ruiz in five rounds.

All ratings data provided by Nielsen Media Research.

Jake Donovan

Twitter: @JakeNDaBox

Facebook Page: JakeBScene