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

[JeBron Lamez]

This guy Turki be all in the videos, all on the record, dancing...

[TMLT87]

Theres a lot of downsides to this Saudi sportswashing stuff but one thing I will say is recently, largely because of this, boxing PPVs have actually started to get deeper than usual. The gap vs how stacked UFC PPVs are relatively is now smaller than its been in a long long time.

[NoAgendaBoxing]

I was there in person and left after the pitbull fight. Lots of bad seats in BMO for boxing (now i know for next time). Zero interest in the concert and of course the food prices were obscene. I took a long walk to the rail, took the rail to my car, drove 20 minutes to popeyes and the main event started as soon as i got my food. Also i couldn't hear anything that was said from the ring, very much unlike a typical arena. It was definitely a mixed bag for me but i will always fall on the side of making good fights and this card definitely delivered that. However splitting this card into two mightve been a great idea...and also helped with those extremely high prices (ended up dropping fast the week of though).

[Claude Palle]

I agree 100% with this writer. Boxing is a great sport, when done right. Dragging out an already long card is ridiculous. The main event should be over by midnight, east coast time or close to it. His idea about splitting this card was spot on. The Crawford main event card should have been PPV and the other card, "free" on DAZN. Not that DAZN is actually free, anyway! It equals to two nights of fights, instead of one. As for "his excellency"? Give it a break. You might as well just lift his robe and kiss his arse on live T.V.

[Mr WorldWide]

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??

I was disappointed there was no Bingo.... There's always a fight after Bingo.

[chicken-]

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.

I agree, I was surprised how early some of the undercards came on, and it didn't make sense with the supposed 11:30PM EST ring walk time for Crawford. After the last undercard I went out to get food, was gone for over 20 minutes and I came back to see Bud still in his damn dressing room, then had to sit through a 20 minute eminem concert (at least he was actually singing most of it, not just singing along to a backing track like all the other frauds do).

[PBR Streetgang]

That said, I think the PPV cards of early 2000s were done well. I believe they were 4 undercard fights with the first one pretty much only for the diehards, and the rest were solid fights that sometimes gave you an unexpected result. The main event typically started 11pm sharp and would be over just a little after 12am (EST). This was for me the perfect timing and all. I would leave buddies houses and it wasn't terrible. Nowadays, the events are finishing sometime after 1am. It's crazy.

Agree with you aon this. Maybe it's me just being nostalgic but I did enjoy this format. I'm on EST and those main events that start after midnight are tough to stay up for (especially as I get older).

[El_Mero]

Making the case against? Nah, I watched this from top to bottom. I liked damn near every fight. Keep em coming

[57Blues]

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.

" opinion pieces " how the hell else is boxing and boxing fans going to take an honest look at the sport without a pc on how boxing is presented on a PPV event. What if no one ever questioned the state of boxing and part of the state of boxing is how it is presented to the fight fan ? I would rather hear an honest rant then another snow job on a fighter who is long lost it in the ring, or a famed fighter who wont fight a real challenge, or hiding the dirt of boxing inside a feel good story. Most pcs are nothing more then an advertisment for the next PPV event an interview that is just a kiss up to a promoter to get tix and stay in tight with a platform. Boxing is a dirty sport and you need to shine a light on it from time to time .....

[Southpaw16]

I really enjoyed the card, but I had it on all day while hanging out and barbecuing and playing with my kids in between fights. A live show would be more difficult. All that being said, I can’t believe we’re complaining about this. Guys, fights are actually happening.