Beeb coverage packs a punch

Hasim Rahman celebrates his win over Lennox Lewis

Lennox Lewis' fall from grace gave the BBC an unexpectedly dramatic return to live television coverage of championship boxing.

Viewing figures show nearly eight million people tuned in to witness Lennox Lewis' fight against Hasim Rahman on BBC One - despite the bout taking place in the early hours of the morning.

The figures indicate that it drew a peak audience of 1.4m viewers with an average of 1.2m and a 73% share of viewing.

The terrific viewing figures for these two massive sporting events shows once again that the BBC brings in the biggest audiences for the biggest events

  Peter Salmon

The audience for the repeat screening at 1900BST on BBC One peaked at 6.3m with an average of 5m, giving a share of 21% of viewing.

In all, some 7.7m people watched the fight on BBC One.

Meanwhile, BBC One's coverage of this year's London Marathon attracted a peak total of 5.4m viewers, with an average of 4.4m.

This represents a share of 48% of viewing and shows an increase from last year's coverage which peaked at 5.1m and averaged 4.1m viewers.

The marathon coverage had more viewers than last year

BBC director of sport Peter Salmon said: "The terrific viewing figures for these two massive sporting events shows once again that the BBC brings in the biggest audiences for the biggest events.

"The fact that in the early hours 1.4m people watched the British champion fight and lose with great dignity in a quite sensational sporting upset, and that 5.4m tuned in to our London Marathon coverage represents a resounding endorsement of the BBC's continuing commitment to sporting excellence."

These figures complete a highly successful week for BBC Sport which included an audience for BBC One coverage of the UEFA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Barcelona which peaked at 10.7m.