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Comparing the HBO PPV numbers to the UFC PPV numbers is the wrong formula on judging how healthy each sport is, people look at these numbers and automatically assume "Boxing is Dying" "We need to fix Boxing" "OMG"
Lets break this down just to show how healthy the sports really are.
One sport is MMA
One sport Boxing
MMA has had 3 major organizations die the past 2 years and that's not counting Bodogfights,
Hardcore Championship Fighting soon to be Dream.
IFL -
The IFL was a MMA org that was founded March, 2005, in a very short time they were able to secure a deal with Fox Sports. Corporate sponsors such as Microsoft, Suzuki and Coca-Cola sign on, in November 2006 The company goes public. December 2007 "60 Minutes" prominently features IFL. Shortly after, its stock peaks at $17. March of 2007 MyNetworkTV begins screening IFL fights, June 2007 IFL shares fall to $1.
December 2007 IFL's contract with MyNetworkTV ends. June 2008 IFL cancels an August event at the Izod Center, saying the company can't afford to stage it. The CEO says the league is looking for a buyer or partner.
Oct 2008 the IFL sells for $650,000 - IFL DEAD
PrideFC -
PRIDE Fighting Championships was formed in 1997,they held more than sixty mixed martial arts events. During its ten years of operation, Pride was broadcast in 41 countries worldwide. Pride still holds the record for largest crowd for a MMA event at Tokyo National Stadium 91,107 in attendance.
On June 5, 2006, Fuji Network announced that they were terminating their television contract with PRIDE Fighting Championships effective immediately due to a breach of contract, According to Fightopinion.com and a Japanese magazine called Shukan Gendai, Pride has been run and owned by the Yakuza(Japanese Mob) for some time.
The owners of the UFC bought pride in March 2007 for a reported $70 million with the intentions of having another MMA brand in Japan, after failing to secure a TV deal in Japan, the new pride owner(Lorenzo Fertitta) was forced to shut down the company in October 2007. They fired the remaining 20 employees in Japan and closed it's offices. The UFC owners ended up paying $70 million for fighter contracts and a video library. - Pride Dead
Elite XC -
Elite Xtreme Combat was founded as a partnership between Showtime Networks Inc. and ProElite, Inc. Their first major event was in February, 2007, 1 year later it was reported that EliteXC had reached an agreement with CBS to broadcast EliteXC shows on prime time. The first show May 31, 2008 on CBS drew the highest ratings in the history of MMA in north america, it peaked at 6.5 million viewers watching the main event with Kimbo Slice against James Thompson. That week they ended up second in most watched sport shows on Television, the second Elite XC show on CBS on July, 26 was not what CBS was expecting. The ratings were down 40% from the first show, rumor were rampant that the company was hemorrhaging money but they still had Kimbo Slice so the next show had to be a blockbuster. October 4 was the next show and they scheduled Kimbo against well known 44 year old 1 - 7 in his last 8 fights Ken Shamrock, the plan an easy win for Kimbo huge ratings, sounds great. The day of the fight Shamrock pulls out with a cut and isn't allowed to fight, Kimbo has to face late sub and subsequently gets ko'd in 10 seconds. The ratings ended up being great but after the fight there were allegations of pay offs to keep the fight standing, The Florida state athletic commission starts an investigation to look into fight fixing. On October 21 it was reported that Elite XC would close it's doors by the end of the week, it was reported that in it's 2 years of existence the company had lost $55million . -Elite XC Dead
Boxing
The claims of boxing's death are greatly exaggerated, you will not be able to find a time when there has been this much boxing accessible to the general public.
Network TV
Telefutura(soon to be shifted to Azteca America)
Telemundo
Basic Cable
ESPN Friday night fights (9 months out of the year)
Versus - Fight Night
Fox Sports Net- will begin airing notable overseas title bouts on a tape-delay basis about once per month as part of "Best Damn Sports Show Period."
ESPN Classic - Boxing every night
Golden Boy Promotions is working on a deal for a monthly boxing program on basic cable to feature prospects.
Premium Cable
HBO Has a Boxing budget of $60 million a year, they had 20 shows this year not counting PPV.
Showtime has a Boxing budget of $20 million a year, they had 24 cards this year non on PPV.
All these different channels are pumping money into the Boxing economy, here in the US not counting PPV buys or live gate.
Non Us Boxing networks
UK Setanta
UK Nuts.tv
UK ITV
UK Sky Sports
UK BBC
Germany ARD
Germany ZDF
Mexico TV Azteca
Canada Super Channel
Canada TSN
Live Gate
The Top grossing gate in the history of MMA
CHUCK LIDDELL vs. TITO ORTIZ II
12/30/06 $5,397,300
Top Boxing gates of the last 2 years
FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR vs. OSCAR DE LA HOYA
05/05/07 $18,419,200
Oscar De La Hoya vs Pacquiao
12/6/08 $14,380,300
Ricky Hatton vs Juan Lazcano
5/24/08 $12,000,000
JOE CALZAGHE vs. BERNARD HOPKINS
04/19/08 $ 11,636,400
FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR vs. RICKY HATTON
12/08/07 $10,393,950
Biggest one fight purse for each sport in 2008
MMA
Tim Sylvia - $800,000
Andre Arlovski -$749,690
Chuck Liddel l - $500,000
Kimbo Slice - $500,000
Brock Lesnar - $450,000
Forrest Griffin - $310,000
BJ Penn - $250,000
Randy Couture - $250,000
Anderson Silva - $200,000
Boxing
Oscar Delahoya - $24,000,000
Felix Trinidad - $14,000,000
Wladimir Klitschko - $12,000,000
Manny Pacquiao - $11,000,000
Joe Calzaghe - $10,000,000
Roy Jones - $10,000,000
Bernard Hopkins - $8,000,000
Miguel Cotto - $7,000,000
Kelly Pavlik - $3,000,000
Which sport is dying again?? Boxing ain't going nowhere.
Lets break this down just to show how healthy the sports really are.
One sport is MMA
One sport Boxing
MMA has had 3 major organizations die the past 2 years and that's not counting Bodogfights,
Hardcore Championship Fighting soon to be Dream.
IFL -
The IFL was a MMA org that was founded March, 2005, in a very short time they were able to secure a deal with Fox Sports. Corporate sponsors such as Microsoft, Suzuki and Coca-Cola sign on, in November 2006 The company goes public. December 2007 "60 Minutes" prominently features IFL. Shortly after, its stock peaks at $17. March of 2007 MyNetworkTV begins screening IFL fights, June 2007 IFL shares fall to $1.
December 2007 IFL's contract with MyNetworkTV ends. June 2008 IFL cancels an August event at the Izod Center, saying the company can't afford to stage it. The CEO says the league is looking for a buyer or partner.
Oct 2008 the IFL sells for $650,000 - IFL DEAD
PrideFC -
PRIDE Fighting Championships was formed in 1997,they held more than sixty mixed martial arts events. During its ten years of operation, Pride was broadcast in 41 countries worldwide. Pride still holds the record for largest crowd for a MMA event at Tokyo National Stadium 91,107 in attendance.
On June 5, 2006, Fuji Network announced that they were terminating their television contract with PRIDE Fighting Championships effective immediately due to a breach of contract, According to Fightopinion.com and a Japanese magazine called Shukan Gendai, Pride has been run and owned by the Yakuza(Japanese Mob) for some time.
The owners of the UFC bought pride in March 2007 for a reported $70 million with the intentions of having another MMA brand in Japan, after failing to secure a TV deal in Japan, the new pride owner(Lorenzo Fertitta) was forced to shut down the company in October 2007. They fired the remaining 20 employees in Japan and closed it's offices. The UFC owners ended up paying $70 million for fighter contracts and a video library. - Pride Dead
Elite XC -
Elite Xtreme Combat was founded as a partnership between Showtime Networks Inc. and ProElite, Inc. Their first major event was in February, 2007, 1 year later it was reported that EliteXC had reached an agreement with CBS to broadcast EliteXC shows on prime time. The first show May 31, 2008 on CBS drew the highest ratings in the history of MMA in north america, it peaked at 6.5 million viewers watching the main event with Kimbo Slice against James Thompson. That week they ended up second in most watched sport shows on Television, the second Elite XC show on CBS on July, 26 was not what CBS was expecting. The ratings were down 40% from the first show, rumor were rampant that the company was hemorrhaging money but they still had Kimbo Slice so the next show had to be a blockbuster. October 4 was the next show and they scheduled Kimbo against well known 44 year old 1 - 7 in his last 8 fights Ken Shamrock, the plan an easy win for Kimbo huge ratings, sounds great. The day of the fight Shamrock pulls out with a cut and isn't allowed to fight, Kimbo has to face late sub and subsequently gets ko'd in 10 seconds. The ratings ended up being great but after the fight there were allegations of pay offs to keep the fight standing, The Florida state athletic commission starts an investigation to look into fight fixing. On October 21 it was reported that Elite XC would close it's doors by the end of the week, it was reported that in it's 2 years of existence the company had lost $55million . -Elite XC Dead
Boxing
The claims of boxing's death are greatly exaggerated, you will not be able to find a time when there has been this much boxing accessible to the general public.
Network TV
Telefutura(soon to be shifted to Azteca America)
Telemundo
Basic Cable
ESPN Friday night fights (9 months out of the year)
Versus - Fight Night
Fox Sports Net- will begin airing notable overseas title bouts on a tape-delay basis about once per month as part of "Best Damn Sports Show Period."
ESPN Classic - Boxing every night
Golden Boy Promotions is working on a deal for a monthly boxing program on basic cable to feature prospects.
Premium Cable
HBO Has a Boxing budget of $60 million a year, they had 20 shows this year not counting PPV.
Showtime has a Boxing budget of $20 million a year, they had 24 cards this year non on PPV.
All these different channels are pumping money into the Boxing economy, here in the US not counting PPV buys or live gate.
Non Us Boxing networks
UK Setanta
UK Nuts.tv
UK ITV
UK Sky Sports
UK BBC
Germany ARD
Germany ZDF
Mexico TV Azteca
Canada Super Channel
Canada TSN
Live Gate
The Top grossing gate in the history of MMA
CHUCK LIDDELL vs. TITO ORTIZ II
12/30/06 $5,397,300
Top Boxing gates of the last 2 years
FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR vs. OSCAR DE LA HOYA
05/05/07 $18,419,200
Oscar De La Hoya vs Pacquiao
12/6/08 $14,380,300
Ricky Hatton vs Juan Lazcano
5/24/08 $12,000,000
JOE CALZAGHE vs. BERNARD HOPKINS
04/19/08 $ 11,636,400
FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR vs. RICKY HATTON
12/08/07 $10,393,950
Biggest one fight purse for each sport in 2008
MMA
Tim Sylvia - $800,000
Andre Arlovski -$749,690
Chuck Liddel l - $500,000
Kimbo Slice - $500,000
Brock Lesnar - $450,000
Forrest Griffin - $310,000
BJ Penn - $250,000
Randy Couture - $250,000
Anderson Silva - $200,000
Boxing
Oscar Delahoya - $24,000,000
Felix Trinidad - $14,000,000
Wladimir Klitschko - $12,000,000
Manny Pacquiao - $11,000,000
Joe Calzaghe - $10,000,000
Roy Jones - $10,000,000
Bernard Hopkins - $8,000,000
Miguel Cotto - $7,000,000
Kelly Pavlik - $3,000,000
Which sport is dying again?? Boxing ain't going nowhere.
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