Ward/Kovalev and the sad Reality of the State of Boxing

[-PBP-]

This is a fight between arguably 2 of the best 5 fighters our sport has to offer. Normally when this happens, the fight is a box office smash. Leonard/Duran, Chavez/Whitaker, Oscar/Trinidad, Mayweather/Pacquiao. Arenas are packed and millions are watching. It's a good time to celebrate boxing.

In this case, the fan interest will not match the magnitude of the fight.

1. The promoters suck and have no experience staging fights of this magnitude.

2. Neither fighter is a superstar and generate average to below average ratings on HBO.

3. The fight will be on ppv which will limit the audience to only 150-200k

4. The fight will be in Vegas and apparently mgm already plans on buying tickets and handing them out to high rollers because they know this fight won't sell on it's own

MGM also had put in a request to purchase a large quantity of tickets for the Ward-Kovalev bout, likely to be distributed to high rollers.

Which means you aren't getting good seats if you decide to go.

5. Neither guy can sell unless he's in his hometown


So what we have, is a rare instance, where the best fight in boxing will not be in a packed, sold out arena with millions watching worldwide. The audience will be limited to a couple hundred thousand hardcore fans and Vegas high rollers. The promotion will be an embarrassment and the fight will likely be lackluster.

Don't get me wrong, I can't wait for this fight. But unfortunately, these two great fighters will be displaying their talents in front of a limited audience and will likely see little increase in their star power.

[Sun_Tzu]

Hard to find fault in what you wrote. Boxing is a shiet show now.

[Vasyl’s dad]

Hard to find fault in what you wrote. Boxing is a shiet show now.

Once the fans started spouting off daily, "boxing is a business" while defending ducking and cherry picking, promoters basically said "**** it, lets just take them for every penny they have while putting our names in the easiest fights possible".

[bojangles1987]

Such is boxing in America.

I'm still hopeful that this fight will increase the winner's profile, though, and create a real star.

[Prince Madison]

Once the fans started spouting off daily, "boxing is a business" while defending ducking and cherry picking, promoters basically said "**** it, lets just take them for every penny they have while putting our names in the easiest fights possible".

yep, like so many do in this forum. Ward is immune from criticism because on here, having 1 competitive fight out of 5 is considered a great ratio. Loads of people defending spence v bundu, wilder v arreola, potentially swift v berto. Remember i moaned about one of them and said fighters should be looking to put on good competitive fights and someone said 'you sound like a *****', sums it up really. and before you muppets moan about GGG, hes gone after all the big names in the division, hasnt deliberately picked someone useless/

[Prince Madison]

lost ****ing count of the amount of times ive had people condescend me and others on here 'you dont appreciate the business side of boxing, you are a casual'

[-PBP-]

Once the fans started spouting off daily, "boxing is a business" while defending ducking and cherry picking, promoters basically said "**** it, lets just take them for every penny they have while putting our names in the easiest fights possible".

But the problem is the biggest fights in boxing are generating piss poor business. It's ****ing Ward vs Kovalev and nobody gives a **** except a handful of people. This fight won't even do better than Mayweather vs Berto.

[Willy Wanker]

Once the fans started spouting off daily, "boxing is a business" while defending ducking and cherry picking, promoters basically said "**** it, lets just take them for every penny they have while putting our names in the easiest fights possible".

I agree, people always defend their favorite fighters when they duck other fighters and say, "you're not the one getting in ring taking a beating. It's his health, not yours. Boxing is a biz doe."

If fighters like Danny Garcia want to fight 10 Salkas and make as much money with as little risk as possible that's fine, but fighters and fans have to accept the criticism. Fans can't defend Garcia for taking big money for soft fights, but also complain and whine that he isn't recognized as a top p4p fighter. You can't have it both ways.

That's why boxing is in the situation it's in now.

[Willy Wanker]

lost ****ing count of the amount of times ive had people condescend me and others on here 'you dont appreciate the business side of boxing, you are a casual'

We want to see the best fight the best consistently.

I guess that makes us casuals.

[Kagami Taiga]

IceA lot of truth in everything stated here. But like you said both promotions are pretty crap and they both rely on theit one ace so let's hope that this is enough for them to get their act together and focus in the big picture. I have no faith in them as promoters but I do have faith on the boxers.