Comments Thread For: Top Rank searching for new options as ESPN lets current deal expire

[boxingitis]

DAZN is the place to be. Queensbury is already there. They work with Bob for years.

[Sheikh]

No Channel wants to deal with boxing anymore. The best fighters don't fight the best. The ratings and then declined big time. Fans want to watch the best fights

[ShoulderRoll]

Too many boxing promotional outfits - Top Rank and PBC most notably - have viewed their TV partners more like suckers than partners. They’ve been living off the TV money while providing largely mediocre cards and content, and letting their main stars go long stretches without fighting in meaningful non-PPV fights. Just like too many NBA stars look for excuses to avoid playing games, too many TR and PBC fighters look for excuses to not fight. If a TV networks does not absolutely need boxing - like DAZN does - what’s the point of putting up with the headaches of dealing with all the sport’s BS?

Exactly right.

All Top Rank does is take money from a network, make the relationship exclusive so that other promoters can’t get any airtime or compete, then proceed to make mediocre in-house cards. Very rarely putting the best against the best.

I would hope people in the industry have gotten wise to Arum by now.

[11Combos]

first Mayweather killed HBO... then PBC killed Showtime... now TR kills ESPN... all those guys suck & are the reason Boxing has been declining... and still idiots praise Floyd... smh

[James Hunt]

Top Rank’s stable of prospects might be the best. Zayas, Abdullah Mason, Richard Torrez…

I’m disappointed, I liked the Top Rank on ESPN product.

Richard Torrez?!
He's just a US version of Frazer Clarke.

[steeve steel]

Brother , I’ve been hearing boxing is dead for years and yet here we are
The Bobfather is still here feeding us boxing

Boxing isn't dead, specially in Montreal! We still fill stadiums like it's the 70's! I was taking about grandad Bob.

[crimsonfalcon07]

Well, I can save myself some money and drop ESPN. Might watch a few past UFC events but I keep forgetting to. Bet Bob will have to swallow his pride and join "Dead Zone".

[bchap05]

At this point I hope everyone just goes to DAZN with Turki. We have been trying separation of promos for 40+ years and it hasn't worked. Might as well try something new.

I hate a lot of things about Dazn and Turki but also like a lot of things. I like that Dazn is huge in boxing, they literally have like 2-3 fight cards a week. They show the entire card not just 2 fights. Might be some garbage men fighting in the UK but they still have it. They do lots of promo shows and podcasts. I love that Turki is lowering prices, putting better cards, and forcing fights. Espn barely gave a crap about boxing. Cut off rounds 10 seconds before the bell, started late constantly sometimes missing a fight, only showed 2 fights, etc...

But Dazn for some reason has sort of crappy camera quality. Would think Turki could buy them better cameras. Has a haze to it almost like watching cbssports vs espn or fs1. I hate the fight card start times when in Saudi. Their announcing crew is the weakest of them all. The biggest downfall of DAZN is only boxing fans buy it. My grandma has ESPN. Grandma doesn't know what the hell DAZN is. So it mostly will kill off casuals unless Turki can figure someway to put on such good fights and promote it that it brings them in. Key to that is probably the fighters promoting themselves on social media to make fans enough to seek out how to watch their fights. Some fighters are good at that but many suck and have like 2k followers.

I think consolidation is good for the fans but not necessarily for the sport in general. Turki could make Top Rank, GB, and PBC like his American division and start putting on more US cards.

[bballchump11]

first Mayweather killed HBO... then PBC killed Showtime... now TR kills ESPN... all those guys suck & are the reason Boxing has been declining... and still idiots praise Floyd... smh

GGG killed HBO

[bballchump11]

Networks will stay away from boxing as long as the fighters keep getting paid more than they actually produce. DAZN and Turki are doing fine because he doesn't care about making a profit.