Spend $20 At Modell's, Get 2 Free Martinez-Barker Tickets

Here's the problem. Hardcore fans don't even know who Barker is. Hell, when HBO is promoting the fight with commercials, they show clips of Martinez getting some KO's, then show "Darren Barker" and show him with his hands up for the crowd. That's it, that's all they show of him. Like really, HBO can't show a few clips of the guy knocking some one down at least? So hardcore fans in general don't know who Darren Barker is, casual fans generally do not know who Sergio Martinez is...what you think is gonna happen? It's gonna bomb. At least if you put two fighters that hardcore fans both know, it would get decent revenue. For example Martinez vs Williams, or Pavlik vs Martinez. Let's face it, Pavlik ain't got no causal fanbase either. And even better, if you put a big boxing star in with a fighter who hardcore fans know, then that too would do good numbers. Barker/Pirog/Dzinzuruk vs Martinez are all calling to bomb. Martinez will never make a name fighting those type of guys, and people are crying to see him against Pirog, when he either has a good fanbase. So what if he chose Barker, there's no difference. Both European hype jobs. For me, personally, he already beat the best European fighter he could beat from 154-160 and that's Dzinzuruk. Pirog is trash, Barker is trash, Sturm couldn't even get passed Macklin in Germany without controversy. Dzinzuruk is the best European fighter there, he's the toughest and he got dominated by Martinez. Knocked down 5 times before getting stopped.

Now that's a helluva deal :alcoholic Martinez vs Barker: Ticket Sales Dead in the Water for Saturday Fight I'm not putting this up simply to be adversarial or point and laugh or whatever, but this is really bad. Middleweight champ Sergio Martinez did an in-store appearance at a Modell's in New York City today, and there was an offer for a free pair of tickets with $20 spent on Everlast products. A free pair of tickets, for $20 spent at Modell's. This, combined with several discounts and an offer of 30% off for those who had bought a ticket to the now-rescheduled October 29 fight between Andre Ward and Carl Froch, really points out the extreme difficulty promoters are having moving tickets to this fight. So why is this one so bad? Is it the fact that nobody knows Darren Barker? He's never fought on U.S. TV and hasn't exactly had a U.K. career that made waves worldwide. He's a domestic-level British fighter, basically. In today's crap middleweight division that puts him around top ten status (we have him No. 9), and it's not meant as an insult, because he's a fine, talented fighter. But he has no name value here. Some of this has to lie with Sergio Martinez, though, and with this going on, and Sergio not exactly filling Atlantic City for recent fights, it's a lot easier to understand Miguel Cotto almost snickering at the idea that he could make $5 million to fight Sergio Martinez, as he did at a presser for the Margarito fight last week. How much of it is location? Atlantic City has had trouble drawing for fights since Arturo Gatti retired, with the exception of Kelly Pavlik and his traveling Youngstown audience. How much of it is simply Martinez being an Argentinean fighter with no big fanbase, and Barker not being a traveling star from overseas even on the level of, say, Carl Froch? How much of it is a promotional problem? I hate to see it happen to a guy like Sergio Martinez who is a legit champion, a charismatic guy, a top-tier fighter, and fights in an exciting style, but yes, look, boxing is hurting in the United States. Crowds just aren't coming out for fights in big numbers save for a Mayweather or Pacquiao fight, or someone with a legit regional draw, and those guys don't usually charge ticket prices like this fight has. http://www.badlefthook.com/2011/9/27/2453014/martinez-vs-barker-ticket-sales-dead-in-water-saturday-fight is this still going on? if so, for how long will it last? I didn't read the whole article by the way so if it says it in the article my bad but can someone just tell me?

the deal is only for the times square modells. damn, im too far away to make the trip...I would have went too.

wow, that's just sad. as a fan of his, he's an idiot for staying with dibella.

I'm thinking about making the trip to AC for this fight. Does anyone know if I buy the cheap seats I'll be able to move down to some better seats if they're not filled?...I don't think you'll have a problem moving down to level right before the ringside seats, but I doubt you'll be able to sneak into a ringside seat (Most of those are probably comped anyways, would look real bad to see a HBO World Championship fight with empty ringside seats).

P4P number 2/3?, this guy needs a new promoter/manager. He has no one to blame but himself. He was a free agent a few months ago and there was speculation he would sign with TR or GBP but he decided to re-up with Dibella and this is the result of that ill-conceived idea. You can get 2 free tickets after buying a t-shirt at Modell's :lol1: With his abilities and DLH like looks, he would be gold in a real promoter's hands. Oh well. I'm thinking about making the trip to AC for this fight. Does anyone know if I buy the cheap seats I'll be able to move down to some better seats if they're not filled?... Depends on how many tickets they gave away for free but if you pay for tics, probably a great chance you get bumped up when you get there.

I'm thinking about making the trip to AC for this fight. Does anyone know if I buy the cheap seats I'll be able to move down to some better seats if they're not filled?...

damn to bad i didnt know about this i would have spent $20 for a fight

I remember Dibella was claiming Barker was going to bring 1,500 fans from overseas. And I told him "If Barker can't get 1,500 people to follow him on twitter, what makes you think he can get 1,500 people to follow him to the US?"

And Dibella say's nobody knows who Pirog is that's why they wont fight him? LOL

Is that promotion at every Modell's, or just the one in NYC? I just searched their website and didn't see anything regarding that... No clue, but I assume just that particular Modell's where Sergio was doing promotions.

Is that promotion at every Modell's, or just the one in NYC? I just searched their website and didn't see anything regarding that...

yes it would have, New Jersey and New York (Brighton Beach) has a HUGE Russian and Slavic community, look how many people Adamek brings to NJ. While it might not fill the place up but it wouldve been respectable, it wouldve been the perfect place for a Martinez and Pirog fight, since lots of spanish live in NY and lots of Russians live in NY/NJ I agree about the Slavs/Russians in the NYC area. See them everyday.

How much are tickets going for?

When the majority of ppl on NSB don't really know who Barker is.. a website of fight freaks.. Well no one is going to your fight. To be fair, this would not have sold much better had the opponent been Pirog. Martinez needs a bigger name opponent or a very strong undercard.. He should honestly offer to fight Cotto for the price of his training camp. He'd get more out of it than beating Barker down. yes it would have, New Jersey and New York (Brighton Beach) has a HUGE Russian and Slavic community, look how many people Adamek brings to NJ. While it might not fill the place up but it wouldve been respectable, it wouldve been the perfect place for a Martinez and Pirog fight, since lots of spanish live in NY and lots of Russians live in NY/NJ

Time to get down to the old peoples home to give away some tickets.

Brian Vera vs Andy Lee in the undercard would also probalby be worth watching. BTW, if you enter "HERO" the in the coupon code section, you'll get the same discount as military/police/firefighters/emts. Anyone can use it.

Still $20 for a live fight is pretty good.

Seriously why Darren Barker and not Pirog for this fight. The two things hurting ticket sales for this event. 1. No one wants to see Martinez have a completely easy night and straight up own Barker. 2. The economy. I have a buddy who is a ticket broker mainly for concerts but for sporting events also and he told me out of 13 years of doing this it was by far the worst year he has ever had. People just dont have disposible income and are watching every penny these days.

Dibella should just get it over with and make the tickets free. At least he'll gain some fans when they see him fight.