Back when a boxing PPV was still worth it

[Steak]

Don King's mid 90s PPVs, when Tyson was locked up, were very good.

He had the "Night of the Rematches", with rematches of Jackson-McCellan, Norris-Brown, Nelson-Leija, and Chavez-Randall on one card.

Later that year, he had Trinidad-Campas, Randall-Coggi, Ruelas-Leija, and Chavez-Taylor 2 on another card.

Later that year, he had Trinidad-Carr and Castro-Jackson 1 on the undercard of Chavez-Lopez.

The best "**** for your buck" PPV ever was Quiroga-Anifowoshe, which was $10.

all I have to say is wow. were all those fights televised?

[MJ406]

yeah Don King is the man, I saw Trinidad-Jones at a friends and thought it was a pretty good event

"This was ONE CARD, 40 or 50 bucks, but 5 bouts, and 4 of them for titles, all of them cards that would be single events spread out now, and as many as 2 that would be major PPV events..."

good post man, I have to say all that knowledge about it being on one PPV was brand new to me. I obviously knew all the fights happened, but looking back on it, holy crap seeing all those fights for $40 or even $50 would totally be worth it. and your dead on, as in this day and age Spinks/Mayorga would be it's own headliner .. same with Rahman/Ruiz .. and same goes for Hopkins

but 4 title bouts (even if one is an interim) all on the same event is pretty insane, thanks for the post.

but in all honesty, when you dropped 55 bucks on DLH/Mayweather and not only got a **** main event, but only two undercard fights that were barely ESPN2-caliber with any other promoter, weren't you feeling a little robbed? Different sports offer different products but shouldn't there have been a couple more undercards and at least one of them with fighters who were household names in the boxing world? To me, it's just greedy how they stack these shows any longer...that's probably why I'm not buying all of them anymore

I actually bought World Awaits and TBQH I agree with the entire above post. I felt like an absolute moron after spending the $55. 2 crappy under card fights to go with a main event that disappointed as well.

besides disappointed I walked away with this question " If all PPV's are like this, quality wise and for this kind of money ($55) a boxing fan would have to be an idiot to buy a PPV"

and I haven't bought a PPV since.

[neils7147933]

actually that card was full of boring fights. but I understand what you mean.

If you watch some of the older fights, you notice some crazy stuff. like recently Duran fighting Carlos Palomino. this would probebly be a ppv on its own today, and yet it was on the undercard while Larry Holmes fought Weaver or someone.

and even in the 90s, youd have Julio Cesar Chavez defending his title against guys on the undercard of a Mike Tyson fight.
what happened...?

and then you look at guys defending their titles today, but their matches not being televised. what the hell.
its cause promoters refuse to cooperate with other promoters.

well, Don can't be blamed so much for what happened in-ring unless he put some certified duds out there that everyone knew would suck before they happened - as it turned out the Hopkins fight was one-sided, Ruiz's win over Rahman wasn't exactly a barnburner, but we got a quick KO from Judah, a memorable KO from Simms, and a close, could-go-either-way, if sloppy Mayorga-Spinks fight...

at least the effort had gone into the matchmaking. Promoters don't seem to care so much anymore...

[Mojita]

that card was sick! .

[neils7147933]

Here's another example:

10/18 Pavlik vs. Hopkins in what will likely be a boring fight because of styles

And they want 50 dollars for this main event and THESE TWO UNDERCARDS????!??

Steven Luevano vs. Billy Dib
Marco Antonio Rubio vs. Enrique Ornelas

[MJ406]

terrible terrible card.

not to mention the main event could play out to be pretty boring potentially

exactly ... fans are paying $50 for that?

I pity anyone who buys the event.

just more proof that PPV .. not the fans complaining about is

is ''killing boxing''

okay maybe killing boxing is an over statement, but it's killing the interest, IMO

[neils7147933]

terrible terrible card.

not to mention the main event could play out to be pretty boring potentially

exactly ... fans are paying $50 for that?

I pity anyone who buys the event.

just more proof that PPV .. not the fans complaining about is

is ''killing boxing''

okay maybe killing boxing is an over statement, but it's killing the interest, IMO

If they're going to just have undercards like that, they could at least put out a couple more and hope that volume leads to a memorable fight going down on the card...

...but that would squeeze a few more coins OUT of Hopkins and DLH's hands...

[I AM...]

Good post. Nostalgia homey...

Agreed. Don may be hateful but damn he made some great PPVs

[MJ406]

If they're going to just have undercards like that, they could at least put out a couple more and hope that volume leads to a memorable fight going down on the card...

...but that would squeeze a few more coins OUT of Hopkins and DLH's hands...

yeah really, like why no Yuri Foreman? I believe every HBO PPV audience should have the privilege of watching Foreman fight.

but yeah true, for the price fans pay and to see only 3 fights is pretty deadbeat IMO.

volume aside unfortunately PPV's are all about the biggest names, and everyone else gets swept under the rug (sure you know that)

**if boxingscene.com REALLY wanted to do something different with these redundant "look how much our sport has fallen off/MMA rising" articles

why not take an on the surface look at ALL the professional sports shown on TV in the USA

Pro Basketball, Football, Hockey, Baseball, NASCAR, Golf, Tennis .. and for the sake of it College Sports such as Football + basketball

all those above sports can be seen via basic cable for the most part (NBA + NFL premium packages being the exception)

where boxing uses PPV and Premium cable for the most part

i personally find it kinda amazing just to see how many sports are not using PPV.

[MJ406]

BUMP

are Hopkins/Pavlik, Jones Jr/Calzaghe and DLH/Pacquiao worth it

in regards to their respective PPV asking prices?