UFC to sign deal with FOX, Where's Boxing At???

[Domain]

All the big fights are on pay cable like Showtime and HBO or on Pay per view.

The next tier fights are on VERSUS, which is on limited cable systems or on FSN every now and then, which bows to regional coverage - so the fight may come on tape delayed at one in the morning if a local volleyball game needs aired and goes into OT.

The most available cable station that shows boxing - ESPN2 - is like watching NAIA college sports when the pay cable channels are showing Division I.

And the networks like CBS and NBC can't compete with HBO and Showtime because the promoters need too much money... they can't justify putting 2 million up for a fight that's going to get like a 2 or 3 rating in primetime. Pay Per View can appeal to a smaller group of fans who pay - pay cable earns subscription rates. The networks have to get the money from selling ad time - and it'll be hard to convince major companies that their products will get high profile attention if they pay Super Bowl like money for Winky Wright vs. Bernard Hopkins

Kimbo drew 6.5 million fans. Wait til Chuck Liddell is in prime time. You think Floyd or Oscar would fight on a network for a massive paycut? No way.

If Chuck Liddell fights on Fox free tv prime time that would show how famous that dude is! I gurantee the ratings will be at least 15 million or even up to the 20 millions it would be one of the highest watched events on tv.

[Froch You]

I believe ABC was interested in showing Tarver-Muriqi last year. Hopefully ABC or Versus will step up.

[BROOKLYN CESAR]

With CBS signing a deal with Elite XC and Dana White to announce a deal to air UFC on Fox, why don't these promoters follow suit and get boxing back to Network TV already?

Your thoughts...

who gives a **** what ufc does!!!

Are you saying that zab was never a champion??? I thought he took all 3 of spinks belts which made him the undisputed champ didnt it???

[Kakutogi-Gumi]

Hold it there Cochiese.

Dana's been known to **** up major deals (though to be honest, I think the HBO deal was ****ed from day one without Dana's help). Let's not get our panties in a bunch without some documented evidence from a third party.

[neils7147933]

Hold it there Cochiese.

Dana's been known to **** up major deals (though to be honest, I think the HBO deal was ****ed from day one without Dana's help). Let's not get our panties in a bunch without some documented evidence from a third party.

They've been flirting with Fox for awhile. In fact, Fox Sports used to show their pay-per-views edited into three or four hour-long shows.

But UFC on a network is a lot more likely than a Top 10 p4p fighter showing up on a network, especially against a live opponent...

[Darkstar]

Im still glad Dana messed up the deal with HBO. HBO is boxings last stronghold.

[-Swizzy-]

With CBS signing a deal with Elite XC and Dana White to announce a deal to air UFC on Fox, why don't these promoters follow suit and get boxing back to Network TV already?

Your thoughts...

cuz boxing isn't as organized as mma organizations are. UFC is controlled by a central organization that controls a group of fighters who are their employees. WBO, WBA, IBF don't have any fighters working for them. they don't have any control of them. every fighter represents himself. boxers are scattered all over the place doing their own thing and have no single overhead organization telling them what to do. they have individuals who are looking out for themselves(promoters) that are telling each fighter what to do. promoters hype one fighter, protect another, rush another. everyone is in their own world. that needs to get fixed.

[Mistadobalina]

uhhh... what fox deal? if this were true it'd be all over the mma boards, but not a single thread.


faaaaake.

[The_Italian]

With CBS signing a deal with Elite XC and Dana White to announce a deal to air UFC on Fox, why don't these promoters follow suit and get boxing back to Network TV already?

Your thoughts...

Because boxing is already WELL established on pay tv like HBO and SHO (not to mention the average of 1 to 2 ppv's a month) and its doing decently overall and making a killing to those invovled.

I think the promoters dont want to lose money and put it on free tv and risk all the money they are making from HBO/SHO and PPV.

what they dont understand (in my opinion) is that if its broadcasted on FREE tv and they arent mismatch fights or fights that involve NO names that in the long run it will HELP boxing...

bring in the casual fan and make them want to subscribe to HBO and/or SHO and order those big ppv events.

when i first got into boxing i wasnt going to spend $50 to see a fight in which i have no idea if im getting robbed or if its money well spent.

No one with brains should think putting the likes of Tye Fields and Yuri Foreman on a station like NBC is going to be beneificial to the sport.

We need an occasional good fight to shine and really get the casual fans interested...Versus had the right idea with the malignaggi/hatton tune-up fights...

but it needs to get onto free tv...channels that are numbered with single digits and easily accessible to anyone that turns on their tv...

you always see MLB, NFL, NBA, etc. etc. etc. on free tv and those sports do well...especially football...the NFL does EXTREMELY well and they dont have PPV's and arent on pay tv (HBO/SHO)...

If the NFL started doing the playoffs on PPV i guarantee the viewer rating would drop dramatically.

and for those who argue about lost revenue i will say this...

if the promoters put on good cards for free tv they could make their money on advertisements (like the NFL does on the superbowl and so on)...maybe not $3.5 million per 30 second commericial or anything dramatic like that but they could rise the cost a bit and over the expenses and still make their profits...

[Kakutogi-Gumi]

Im still glad Dana messed up the deal with HBO. HBO is boxings last stronghold.

Again, I don't think Dana needed to be in the picture for that deal to go south. It was all Greenburg.