Despite late start, Hopkins-Kovalev fight a hit on HBO

Bernard Hopkins continues to be a ratings monster in his old age.

His fight with Sergey Kovalev on Saturday in Atlantic City, N.J., drew an average of 1.328 million viewers and attracted a peak of 1.397 million, making it HBO's second-biggest show of the year. Only the Julio Cesar Chavez-Bryan Vera rematch in March, which averaged 1.39 million, did better than Hopkins-Kovalev.

It continues a trend of big numbers on HBO for Hopkins. He drew 1.8 million in 2011 for a fight with Jean Pascal, then had the second-best show of 2012 when his rematch with Chad Dawson drew an average of 1.6 million. Last year, Hopkins' bout versus Tavoris Cloud on HBO was the year's 10th most watched fight, with an average of 1.2 million.

He wasn't as big of a draw in April, when his bout with Beibut Shumenov on Showtime drew just 760,000 viewers.

But he's been ratings gold for HBO the last several years, meaning it's highly unlikely that HBO Sports executives would say no if he chose to fight again in 2015 when he would be 50 years old.

The viewership for the Hopkins-Kovalev bout went up considerably from the lead-in, a match between Sadam Ali and Luis Carlos Abregu that drew 882,000.

They're strong numbers considering the competition from college football, a UFC card and the late start. The HBO broadcast didn't even go on the air until 10:45 p.m. ET. The Hopkins-Kovalev match didn't begin until 11:58 p.m. ET.