Haye/Valuev does massive numbers in Europe

[mrpain81]

Sources at Sky, which broadcast the fight on pay-per-view, reported that they had to hire extra staff to deal with requests as interest grew in the lead-up. It is believed there were between 900,000 and 1m subscriptions and with Haye rumoured to have taken a cut of £5 from each pay-per-view hit, his unceasing promotional efforts of recent weeks appear to have paid off.

David Haye number one in terms of charisma, boxing's moneymakers say | Sport | The Guardian

David Haye is the new WBA Heavyweight Champion after clinching a points victory over Nikolai Valuev. Fighting in front of a sell-out crowd of 8,000 fans in Nuremberg, Haye was ahead 116-112 on two cards, with the third judge ruling the contest a 114-114 draw. The clash drew a sensational peak market share of 40,5 percent (8,4 million viewers) on German free-to-air giant ARD.

Boxing Blog - TSS Tidbits Blog Archive Valuev-Haye Gets 40 Share In Germany


Close to 1 million PPV buys in the UK at £14.95($25USD) and 8.4 million live viewers on network Television in Germany, crazy stuff.

[Joe2608]

It was obvious it was going to be big. Putting a Heavyweight title fight on in the UK with the only UK hope at prime time (i.e. not 4am in the morning!) was a brilliant idea. Plus, Valuev is loved by the Germans so they would have been just as interested as the brits.

I can't name one person i know who didn't watch this fight.

[Scary]

That's pretty much, the promoters must have done a hell of a job.

But the fact that this fight could seem historic, by making a guy called David, fight this big big "monster" making it almost religious, was a really really clever.

[mrpain81]

It was obvious it was going to be big. Putting a Heavyweight title fight on in the UK with the only UK hope at prime time (i.e. not 4am in the morning!) was a brilliant idea. Plus, Valuev is loved by the Germans so they would have been just as interested as the brits.

I can't name one person i know who didn't watch this fight.

That's one of the big reasons imo, the good news UK fan's won't be having to stay up until 3am in the future. Bad new, you will have to pay.

Hopefully Haye knocks out Ruiz in his next fight and becomes a big star, he won't be coming to the US anytime soon if he can pull those kinds of numbers.

[mrpain81]

Just for a comparison the MMA card on Saturday got 4 million live viewers in the US(Population 304 million) and 8.4 million live viewers in Germany(Population 82 million) both cards were on network Television btw.

[Johnny2hats]

It got such good numbers because everybody wanted to know what would happen when David met Goliath. Even my girlfriend wanted to watch it and she hates boxing!!!

[TRAVI$]

Haye was on every major news channel for days before the fight...
It was always gonna do big numbers.

[Ben_London]

Even my mum came downstairs to watch the 12th round when I was going nuts after Valuev did the chicken dance.

[SP1]

Haye is more than just a boxer when it comes to the females. That was just a lil bonus for Haye but the main attraction was without question the David Vs Goliath promotion. It should not be hard to sell a World Heavy Weight Championship fight against the biggest heavyweight in history and a highly ambitious and vocal chalenger who happens to appeal heavily to females.

I don't know what Golden Boy actually did, surely they must have done something, but Haye was hillarious and down right taking the piss during the whole promotions campaign. I felt kind of bad for Valuev cos he can't help how he looks lol and Haye just went on the offensive with no care in the world and without question he made the fight more attractive for casual fans.

Oh and Jim Watt should get sacked from commentating anymore. This dude needs to go work for an American broadcaster cos his commentary was shocking beyond belief. The old scot had me thinking Valuev was beating the **** out of Haye and Haye was just running around to save his life. Jim Watt was the prick who said Haye should stick to the hit and run tactics before the fight but also added quite blatently that Haye does not have the mental capacity to hold back and would just go for the kil when the bell rings. How wrong was he and he still criticised Haye for doing that and even gave Valuev rounds for just walking up to Haye and missing misserably for virtually the entire fight.

Barry Mcguigan should perhaps also start to support British Fighters more often. This pessimist had Froch to lose against Direll and even after the fight was adamant Froch did not deserve to win and he also said Haye would lose to Valuev and i need to check out what he has to say about that.

Just needed to vent my feelings. LoL

[El_Cholo]

the fight was massive in the UK, people I know who don't know boxing were all wanting to watch it.

I was in a pub in Aberdeen and when Valuev was rocked in the 12th the roar that went him for Haye to pile in and finish him off was ear splitting!!