I was talking to my buddy who just graduated college and got an internship at espn. He is a big boxing fan and was seeing how they covered it. He told me he was talking to a few of his bosses there and they said that espn would love to cover more boxing but there is to much trouble with fighters rights to networks and politics going on in making fights happen. The conversation shifted to MMA/UFC and they were saying how they do not like covering it, because they had surveys and studies where they found they really are not sports fans. He also said there boss is around 50 and he controls a lot of what they do and he can not stand MMA he thinks it "is an excuse for sport."
I heard the same thing but I didn't pay it any attention. The sport of boxing would be much more popular if it had just as much exposure on ESPN as other sports did.
I'm pretty sure ESPN is giving their MMA coverage team more resources than their boxing coverage team, so this doesn't really make that much sense.
Who promotes Friday Night Fights?
I just got done with an internship with ESPN.
Sounds like something Bill Clinton would say.
But, yeah ESPN would have to get around not only internal politics and red tape, but also their viewers which I think are largely made up of NASCAR, NBA, and Golf fans, which don't really care for nor watch much fighting sports.
In my view, ESPN caters to a tight niche of viewers.
I just got done with an internship with ESPN.
Everything he's saying is right.
But the attraction with boxing is more than we think.
Floyd Mayweather came into the studio the day of the first press stop tour for the Mosley fight in NY. He came on the Michael Kay show.
The next day I was by the tech guys and when they were updating the website one of them goes "Jesus christ, the Mayweather interview already has X(I forget how many) amount of hits. Let's get Floyd in here all the time."
The other guy responded with "We can't afford him".
I don't know what point that proves but I was cracking up.
But also, the reason Kellerman's show on ESPN Radio got scrapped is because he was only allotted a certain amount of time on his show to talk Boxing and he really butted heads with the execs. Kellerman just blatantly didn't give a ****, which makes me remember that I have respect for him every time he's babbling on HBO.
I was talking to my buddy who just graduated college and got an internship at espn. He is a big boxing fan and was seeing how they covered it. He told me he was talking to a few of his bosses there and they said that espn would love to cover more boxing but there is to much trouble with fighters rights to networks and politics going on in making fights happen. The conversation shifted to MMA/UFC and they were saying how they do not like covering it, because they had surveys and studies where they found they really are not sports fans. He also said there boss is around 50 and he controls a lot of what they do and he can not stand MMA he thinks it "is an excuse for sport."
Thumbs up to the executives at ESPN!
I agree 100% bruh. I think the organization would have to be greater than that of the FIFA.
Thats not possible....football is so huge that no sport will ever beat it
Good post, fukc what these other guys think. I like this topic being brought up.
I was going to make a thread on this. My point being that boxing is the greatest sport in the World, but currently with the worst infrastructure of pretty much any sport.
Boxing is fought on an international level, that's why it needs a special international organization of the magnitude of a FIFA.
I agree 100% bruh. I think the organization would have to be greater than that of the FIFA.
I'll answer any responses left and elaborate on what I think should be done.
If we could mobilize boxing fans to form an outspoken organization on behalf of fans boxing would be a lot better. Shit, if/when I get my degree, I might just try to create a FIBA. We're doing a great injustice to boxing by allowing this to keep going on.
Good post, fukc what these other guys think. I like this topic being brought up.
I was going to make a thread on this. My point being that boxing is the greatest sport in the World, but currently with the worst infrastructure of pretty much any sport.
Boxing is fought on an international level, that's why it needs a special international organization of the magnitude of a FIFA.
My point is that the biggest sports network in the world wants to cover more boxing but there are too many shady characters in the sport who are holding it back.