The thing is, I very much like Wilder. His fights are exciting and he seems like a good dude (though if he decides to stop yelling out BOMB SQUAD! over and over again, it would be cool with me). I just don't think he's that good, even if I'd like him to be. I'd bet the first time he fights a top heavyweight he's getting knocked out.
I can't imagine him being offered an amount that would make stepping aside a good idea so I can only call this a strange move if it's true.
Yeah, unless it's like life changing money it's a horrible idea. Who is Khurtsidze's manager? Dude is coming off an exciting upset win that got people interested in him and instead of capitalizing on it, or even just keeping him busy, he goes without fighting for a year. Terrible job running his career.
3-4 years ago, when Chavez Jr, when Chavez Jr was relevant, this would have been a much bigger fight. This fight will do better PPV numbers than it should, but GGG-Canelo will be much bigger.
Chavez Jr hasn't had a meaningful win since he beat Andy Lee in 2012. He's an afterthought.
I really enjoyed the film. and I would recommend it (especially since if you're posting here, I bet you like boxing movies). But someone other then me should tell you how true it is, I really knew little about him.
I would never dog on a fighter for retiring, so many guys leave the sport screwed up that it doesn't seem right to criticize someone for stopping. If Ward is going to retire, I have no problem with that.
If he keeps fighting, his next fight should be a rematch with Krusher. It was too close of a fight to move on from.
But I agree with Rafael. Give me Krusher and Stevenson over Krusher Ward 2. Enjoy your retirement SOG.
It's BS this fight is PPV, but I'd rather watch this on PPV than watch GGG vs Monroe 2 and Jacobs vs Mora 3 for free, so it is what it is. I can always go out and watch it at a bar for free...
I'm actually happy this fight is on PPV. I'd rather it be there for me to ignore and not buy than burning a good chunk of HBO's yearly budget.
Do we know if this would be HBO PPV? Or an independent Roc Nation show?
I doubt they would give him a boxing liscense anywhere after that
Sadly, I am sure some shady commission somewhere would grant him a license. He'd still be a draw.
But he really should retire.
You can admit the skill and talent of someone like Rigo and also find it boring. I can give the defense first guys all the credit in the world, I'm just not going to go out of my way to watch their fights.
What I am hoping for is for both Canelo and GGG lose to lesser opponents for way less money then they would made fighting each other, and to end up fighting some really pathetic promotion like 10 years after anyone would have wanted to see the fight (Ala Hopkins vs Roy Jones #2).
I am so tired of boxers putting off the fights fans clearly want to see. Screw the both of them.
I think it's a stretch to complain about the judges in this fight. It was so close. I thought GGG won, but I couldn't argue with anyone who had Jacobs. The cards weren't unreasonable.
He struggled with a guy who's not even top 100 p4p. Stop it.
Danny Jacobs isn't one of the top 100 p4p fighters in boxing? I'd love to see your list and the 100 fighters who are better.
Ward's taking his first fight in his new weight division. Barrera is a totally acceptable stay busy kind of fight in this scenario.
GGG is getting rid of a mandatory. Also a totally acceptable fight.
To argue one over the other is silly.
This is probably all part of the regular pre fight nonsense, I bet this fight comes off. He needs a decent opponent, and he needs to fight once or twice before Kovalev or that PPV will make GGG vs Lemiux look like May vs Pac.
Maybe Roc Nation can get a couple of terrible rap bands instead of a regular undercard.
and he is already not a draw
He didn't sell a lot of PPVs. No doubt. I don't think he ever comes close to Pac Man or Mayweather in that department unless he's fighting Canelo.
But he did sell out MSG, and drew real big crowds in So Cal as well. He's a draw. If he's not, then Canelo will be the only "draw" once Pac Man retires.
If GGG is not a draw, who is a draw in America? Assuming every ticket sold at MSG sold for 5 dollars (which is clearly not true), he still sold over 20,000 tickets. Who else other than Canelo can do that? Most boxing cards these days can't get half that crowd in the venue for free.
Assuming Ward is close to what he was before all the time off, he should win this one easy. The main reason this is an intriguing fight to me is we don't know for sure that he's the same guy who beat Chad Dawson. Even if he's slipped some, Barrera winning would be a big upset.
Oscar worked on his public image. Whether he was a saint or not.
Floyd went out of his way to be the villain.
Hence why he wasn't adored. Not because of racism.
Someone also could point out that Oscar in fact, is also not white. So maybe people tend to forgive him because of the fact that he comes across as a friendly, nice guy and not a jerk.
You don't believe a white man at the top of his sport for 10+ years would have endorsements out the ass?
We had just had a white, good looking, educated Heavyweight Champion of the world for 10+ years and no one in America cared. Other than that hot actress he married.
I've personally always wondered why no boxing on Dec 26th, boxing day? Doesn't have to be some huge card, but just put some sort of boxing on TV on boxing day.
Yeah, because Kellerman should be talking about how Andre Wards last 4 years are the most brilliant boxing he's ever seen.
HBO, especially Kellerman, usually swing from Andre's nuts. I think they're just getting frustrated with his inactivity and weirdness. Which is understandable.
If Andre Ward fights twice this year and one of the fights is Kovalev, they will get right back on his nuts.
Just like if Deontay Wilder somehow keeps talking and knocking everyone out AS an AMERICAN heavyweight we can't be surprised if he became a mega star
Wilder can be a huge star if he wins his next few fights. I think people like him, he gets crap because most people don't think he's for real. He beats Spzilka, Povetkin and maybe someone like David Haye this year, then going for the Kiltchsko/Fury winner will be the biggest fight in boxing.
Well, I wouldn't think that it definitely will happen, but Manny (like Floyd) is so much more popular and such a cash cow that politics should get put aside and the fight could happen.
Bradley is a better fighter, but we've seen it twice. Crawford is too much risk for to little reward for a final fight. I like the Broner fight, lets see if it happens.
I'd have much rather seen Kahn, Crawford or even Broner for that matter. But none of those guys would have sold a ton of PPVs either. Haymon and Arum hate each other, and they're only going to deal with each other for GIANT fights like May-Pac.
This is the reality until the PBC folds or HBO gets out of boxing.
Who told you that HBO gets 25% of Pay-Per-View gross?
From this source and others, it appears to be less than 8%.
http://www.secondsout.com/ringside/the-business-of-boxing/the-abcs-of-pay-per-view
I've always read that the promoters got half the PPV split and the Cable channels and providers took the other half.
I'm surprised the number is quite that low for the cable channel, but it's still a good chunk of change for something they have no real risk in. For example, I know if a Top Rank card tanks, Top Rank the ones who eat the loss.
This is a good article, and I know that the dude who wrote this knows more than me, but it is fair to point out that this is an older article (it seems to have been written in 2001, it mentions 2 fights from that year and the average cost they use is 39.95). It wouldn't surprise me if the split has gone up since then.
Now compare the amount of revenue HBO makes from original series in the form of all the revenue streams vs. boxing. LOL
To your point, when OZ and the Sopranos hit, I really thought HBO would ditch boxing. I thought they would put all their money in shows and that would be it. Boxing is no longer the cornerstone of theirs it once was
I think pretty much for the last 10-15 years or so, boxing has been cheap programming for a Saturday night (that they can re-run like crazy) and PPVs are low risk money for them. Boxing hasn't been the first thing on the average HBO subscribers mind in at least 15 years, but they have still kept it. I doubt it's going away anytime too soon, but we will see.