Comments Thread For: Too much boxing: Riyadh Season inadvertently makes the case against 'supercards'

[BoxingUpdates]

The opening bell rang at 12:54 a.m. on the East Coast. And by the time it did, I wasn't just tired. I was tired of boxing. No matter how much you love a sport, there is such a thing as too much of it. And the American debut of Riyadh Season, even if made up of individual parts that were all appealing on paper, was simply too much boxing. The pay-per-view portion of the card at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles consisted of six fights and, in the end, 60 of a possible 68 rounds.
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[dannnnn]

I don't have too much of a problem with Turki getting so much attention because he has changed boxing for the better. It's easy to say that all he brings is money, but he chose to bring that money to boxing when he didn't have to. He's just a fan who wants to see the best fights and is willing to pay over the odds to get it done, and I respect that.

As for the "too much boxing" part, I think the amount of boxing was fine, it's the padding between fights that needs to go. I've said it before, ten minutes after a fight has ended in UFC, the next fighters are making their ring walks. And that includes post-fight interview. That's ample time to run ads and set up the next bout. It doesn't feel rushed, it feels right.

Boxing on the other hand takes an absolute age between fights at the best of times. Thirty minutes is the minimum, forty five is common and the Crawford fight took over an hour. Why? Who is that good for? It slows down the momentum of the card and creates this weird stop-start effect which, to your point OP, becomes a real chore to sit through. I've missed the opening rounds of fights before because I went off to do something else during the intermission and lost track of time. That shouldn't happen. If you're not holding the viewer's attention, you're failing (and re-treading the same old talking points with a bunch of talking heads does not cut it). How hard is it to get these guys warmed up and then just "You're on in ten." How hard is that, seriously? It's embarrassing how far behind boxing is in this aspect.

[Left Hook Louie]

Money Quote:

"needlessly extended in the late stages of an already long night by shameless kowtowing to a non-fighter whose defining positive characteristic is willingness to spend money"

Most Excellent

[AmpMcv]

Is this a parody site? Does the author understand that people come here to read and react to boxing. Go cry to someone else. Boxingscene has fallen off a damn cliff with the opinion pieces.

[HisExcellency]

Foolish article…we want to see stacked cards with competitive matchups 24/7, 365 days a year if possible!

I for one enjoyed Saturdays card much MORE than the regular chitshow promoter’s put together and think back to just a few months prior where Usyk-Fury topped an unforgettable night of boxing following Dubois-Hrgovic, Sheeraz-Williams & Ford-Ball.

More of the same pls Turki!

[Mr WorldWide]

That was as long-winded as the card.

[crimsonfalcon07]

The boxing wasn't the issue with the card... It was the interminable waits between fights filled with blathering from talking heads with little to say, much like the author, rap concerts, and sucking up to the sports washing Saudis. These cards take longer to show me 4 fights than ONE or UFC take to show 12. That's the issue.

[Bob]

Completely wrong,
The issue was start time, then the time between fights & the announcements introducing the fighters taking far to long. Then to top it off add singing in between??

The ufc do it right with bigger stacked cards continuously.

[Elheath]

I'm more of a fan about 4-5 matches, but quality is what matters the most, and no PPV preferred.

The February and May Amazon Prime cards I watched were nice...one 8R fight between ranked contenders followed by three 12R world title fights, then straight up quadruple 12R world title fights, both cards free.

[BritJimbo]

I just watch them all for free on Sunday morning on YouTube now. It isnt stealing if it is on YT, otherwise no one would be able to watch anything on it.

Most boxing writers have no shame in expecting people with jobs to pay 80-100 for a boxing card. This is because they basically work for the promoter and it is fun to fly to Ryadh, London, Vegas and Tokyo to watch fights.