Why are boxing promoters so averse to actually promoting?

Cotto-Canelo was a co-promotion just like this, and the promotion for that event stunk, too. MGM Resorts put up over $16m to host the fight (RocNation/Cotto apparently had a deal to take the fight to NYC, for better money, but Golden Boy decided to simply give up whatever the balance was out of Alvarez's share of the site fee to keep the fight out of NYC) and ended up deciding to only sell maybe 1000 tickets. With Alvarez having his Mexico TV deal, HBO stepping up in a big way to push the fight on their channel, both fighters already being known commodities, and ESPN basically devoting the full fight week to push the fight on regular cable, I'm not all that sure that there was much value-added extra promotion that could've been done, tbh. what money was missed out on, honestly?

Jay-Z's not the lead for the event; Main Events is. Simply compare Roc Nation's efforts behind Cotto-Alvarez (where they were the lead promoter) to Kovalev-Ward (where they are a co-promoter). Jay-Z's not getting any upside on the event, so why put his social media muscle behind someone else's work. DJ Khaled reached out an put Jay-Z on his lead single for his album; I'd bet you all the money in my pocket that Jay-Z wasn't on social media, pushing folks to go onto Itunes and purchase an album that he saw no points on. Cotto-Canelo was a co-promotion just like this, and the promotion for that event stunk, too.

I mean really would it kill jay z to sell the fight on social media.it takes what five minutes.look at ufc and what they do how they sell their fights online on all the different media platforms.no wonder ufc is kicking boxing's ass.boxing cant even promote the biggest boxing fight of the year properly. You're confusing the comparison; how many UFC tweets (actual tweets and not just re-tweets) do you see coming up on Lorenzo or Frank Fertita's Twitter?

this is a pointless discussion. We simply disagree on our respective business philosophies. If I'm involved in something, and my interests (or my fighters interests) are best served by doing something as simple as sending a fricking tweet, Im going to do it, regardless of who technically is the "lead" promoter. You seem to think its perfectly fine for Jay Z to be like "sorry Andre, you cant have access to my millions of followers (or Beyonces millions of followers) because Im not the lead promoter" Its ignorant, and I suspect you are arguing just for the sake of arguing Have you ever looked at Jay-Z's Twitter? This discussion led me to take my first look, and you know what's interesting? He's barely used the platform, most of his tweets are focused on pushing properties that he's working with, and if it's not something directly tied to something that Jay-Z has a direct stake in, it's general sports talk. Beyonce has posted all of 9 tweets! You go an look at the actual Roc Nation Twitter, and you can see that they've done more to push the fight than I expected. Seems like we disagree, and will likely have to agree to disagree.

Most Promoters are lazy,uncreative and stuck in their ways I was watching the press conference yesterday and Buffer got up and I'm thinking this orange tanned old as dust Mother f.ucker has the best job in the World. I grew up on him but it gets to a point where you need new blood and to try and bring new people in, nostalgia only counts for so much like teens and young people could care less about Buffer and yet here he is in the biggest fight of the year doing the same thing he's done for 35 years Bixing needs to step up and try new things and take risks Proos should be given to Arum, Haymon & Hearn for trying new things

I mean really would it kill jay z to sell the fight on social media.it takes what five minutes.look at ufc and what they do how they sell their fights online on all the different media platforms.no wonder ufc is kicking boxing's ass.boxing cant even promote the biggest boxing fight of the year properly.

yeah its been completely embarrassing the way the promotion for this fight has been handled...you figure roc nation/duvas would have had these two guys on all the talking head sports shows on espn/fox sports etc. in order to build up what should have been a mega event...

I don't think Roc Nation's upside on the fight is anywhere near where you seem to think their upside on the fight is, tbh. Andre Ward's rumored purse for the fight is $5m and, like those notorious Arum upsides, I don't see a scenario where Andre Ward gets an additional penny beyond. The fact that Ward is contracted to get $5m, while Kovalev is apparently contracted for less then half of that, makes it pretty clear to me that the onus is on Duva to make her and Kovalev's money. this is a pointless discussion. We simply disagree on our respective business philosophies. If I'm involved in something, and my interests (or my fighters interests) are best served by doing something as simple as sending a fricking tweet, Im going to do it, regardless of who technically is the "lead" promoter. You seem to think its perfectly fine for Jay Z to be like "sorry Andre, you cant have access to my millions of followers (or Beyonces millions of followers) because Im not the lead promoter" Its ignorant, and I suspect you are arguing just for the sake of arguing

no, whats "silly" is for Roc Nation (who is responsible for Wards $5 million guarantee) to not utilize FREE marketing avenues for an event that not only do they have a pending liability for, but also an upside if it did well. Refusing to even assist in the promotion is cutting off their nose to spite their face. But they didnt do squat in the Cotto-Canelo promotion either. Golden Boy ended up doing everything. Jay Z didnt even send out a single tweet...... I don't think Roc Nation's upside on the fight is anywhere near where you seem to think their upside on the fight is, tbh. Andre Ward's rumored purse for the fight is $5m and, like those notorious Arum upsides, I don't see a scenario where Andre Ward gets an additional penny beyond. The fact that Ward is contracted to get $5m, while Kovalev is apparently contracted for less then half of that, makes it pretty clear to me that the onus is on Duva to make her and Kovalev's money.

Gennady Golovkin got paid $3m-$5m to go to the UK to fight on Eddie Hearn's O2 card; outside of the little effort used to push the fight on HBO, what did Golovkin or his camp do to help make the event even bigger? Not trying to be negative, but Golovkin didn't even end up spending 10 days in the UK for the fight. $5m to Ward and $2m to Kovalev, to me, looks like a split up of the site fee money that MGM Resorts put up to host the fight, with Kovalev/Duva making their own money (after costs) on how well the PPv does. To, after the fact, have Jay-Z work as if they're equal partners in the event is silly. no, whats "silly" is for Roc Nation (who is responsible for Wards $5 million guarantee) to not utilize FREE marketing avenues for an event that not only do they have a pending liability for, but also an upside if it did well. Refusing to even assist in the promotion is cutting off their nose to spite their face. But they didnt do squat in the Cotto-Canelo promotion either. Golden Boy ended up doing everything. Jay Z didnt even send out a single tweet......

regardless of who is the lead promoter, its Jay-Z who has the $5 mil guarantee to Ward. It would serve his financial interests to help promote the fight, regardless of who's logo is getting center placement on the light grid.......... Gennady Golovkin got paid $3m-$5m to go to the UK to fight on Eddie Hearn's O2 card; outside of the little effort used to push the fight on HBO, what did Golovkin or his camp do to help make the event even bigger? Not trying to be negative, but Golovkin didn't even end up spending 10 days in the UK for the fight. $5m to Ward and $2m to Kovalev, to me, looks like a split up of the site fee money that MGM Resorts put up to host the fight, with Kovalev/Duva making their own money (after costs) on how well the PPv does. To, after the fact, have Jay-Z work as if they're equal partners in the event is silly.

he's still co promoter he shouldn't leave it all to duva .jay z should be going on radio and tv talking up this fight like crazy jay z has connections in the media this is a no brainer.they dropped the ball big time. Andre Ward/Roc Nation seem to have apparently gotten a fee for the fight (with some upside if the event does magnificently), with Kathy Duva controlling the actual event. Not that hard to understand

It'd cost nothing for Jay Z to give a single mention to the fight on one of his social media accounts. It's his company involved in promoting this, ffs. And making a profit is difficult when your audience is so small. This fight will flop massively on ppv, primarily because few know that it's happening. Jay-Z's not the lead for the event; Main Events is. Simply compare Roc Nation's efforts behind Cotto-Alvarez (where they were the lead promoter) to Kovalev-Ward (where they are a co-promoter). Jay-Z's not getting any upside on the event, so why put his social media muscle behind someone else's work. DJ Khaled reached out an put Jay-Z on his lead single for his album; I'd bet you all the money in my pocket that Jay-Z wasn't on social media, pushing folks to go onto Itunes and purchase an album that he saw no points on.

It's f*cking embarrassing how utterly inept and lazy these promoters are. You've got the single most significant and compelling matchup in boxing in god knows how many years taking place tomorrow night, the winner of whom should be catapulted to superstardom, yet it barely even feels like a regular fight week. This is as big a problem in boxing as the best matchups not happening on a regular basis and why boxing is failing to capture a younger audience: lack of marketing and hype. Promoters who are content to sit on their fat arse and twiddle their thumbs rather than actually trying to do their jobs . Because, in the US tbh, selling tickets doesn't matter as much as it should; you look at the promoters who are recognized as being really good promoters (Lou DiBella, Eddie Hearn, Sauerlands, etc) and the one unifying point, to me, is that all of the guys know and understand that moving the tickets matter; Floyd, Broner, Andre, Terrence Crawford, Jose Ramirez, and a host of other fighters seem to also recognize that point. For a lot of other folks, they're either just not good promoters or they're simply taking the rights fee from TV, the site fee from whomever wants to stage the fight, budgeting out what needs to be paid to the fighters, and simply keeping the remaining balance like a utility. I'm not in Las Vegas, but the fight sold 9k tickets in the first week, and has likely continued to sell tickets throughout the run-up. HBO didn't go to the mattresses for the event, but the two promo packages (that aired/are airing on HBO, but most importantly available to everyone on video sharing sites) turned out pretty good. Main Events leading the event may have something to do with it (Kathy Duva and media savvy have never been a good fit to me), but let's not act like nothing's been done.

I don't know WTF Roc Nation way of business is but they don't seem to be struggling to pay their fighters Good Money :dunno: yeah, when your CEO is a billionare who is only doing fights as a vanity side project, a few million here or there doesnt seem to matter......lol

This isnt new behavior for Roc Nation. They were the same way for Cotto-Canelo, pretty much indifferent and in the backround..... I don't know WTF Roc Nation way of business is but they don't seem to be struggling to pay their fighters Good Money :dunno:

Not saying I agree with Roc Nation not doing much to promote but that seems to be the reason or who's to say Duva even wants them involved? She has made comments about how hard it is to work with them so that could also be why they been hands off :dunno: This isnt new behavior for Roc Nation. They were the same way for Cotto-Canelo, pretty much indifferent and in the backround.....

I think some of these promoters need to think outside the box a bit more, don't get me wrong its probably harder than it looks from the outside and they are all still very intelligent people, but the way they are trying to reach people is the main problem I see at the moment. It's honestly not that difficult, especially in the times that we live in. Literally your entire promotional operations can be done online nowadays and still reach a wide audience, and it can be done within a few seconds on your phone. There's absolutely zero excuse for such laziness and incompetency in this day and age. You're right about Hearn, by the way. He's the one promoter who actually gets it, and he himself has bemoaned and derided the piss poor jobs American promoters do.

It's f*cking embarrassing how utterly inept and lazy these promoters are. You've got the single most significant and compelling matchup in boxing in god knows how many years taking place tomorrow night, the winner of whom should be catapulted to superstardom, yet it barely even feels like a regular fight week. This is as big a problem in boxing as the best matchups not happening on a regular basis and why boxing is failing to capture a younger audience: lack of marketing and hype. Promoters who are content to sit on their fat arse and twiddle their thumbs rather than actually trying to do their jobs . Probably because every fighter now thinks they are a promoter ever since Oscar took over the sport, and their real promoters want to teach their corny asses a lesson. Or maybe because they go for the money up front rather than with a proven promoter. Exhibit A: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Tubar/Ward.jpg

Whilst this is a fair point - digital advertising costs very little. I think they can still do a lot more with less money, they should be targeting social media - google ad words, twitter, email, even text marketing (even though I find it tacky). Like I said the only one rolling with the times is Eddie Hearn and more often than not he is getting the results. As much as I love Ward as a fighter he doesn't have the personality or fighting style to appeal to the masses. Ward is trying to market himself, appearing at Golden State Warriors games, inviting the ball players ringisde to his fights and doing interviews at the Warriors games. Ultimately, becoming a star is more than just boxing ability and Ward and Kovalev just aren't guys that can capture massive audiences.