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Boxing is really going to be run a lot different in a couple years. After Bob Arum is done with boxing and Todd Duboef completely takes over boxing their is going to be a lot different structure. This interview really gives a good view of where Duboef plans on taking the sport.
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He is going to be the most powerful man in the sport in a few years with control over Omar Henry, Jose Benavidez Jr., and many top prospects Top Rank prospects. -
ok I dont get you tube so break it down for meComment
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finally something positive. This forum has been so negative lately.
Anyways, here is a good article:
http://www.maxboxing.com/news/max-bo...ure-of-boxing-Comment
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“People in boxing value success based on how many television dates they get,” DuBoef says. “You’re a successful promoter if you have dates. But that means you’re completely at the mercy of the doler-out. Our job at Top Rank is to create, to promote, to be autonomous. I don’t want our success or failure to be based on what side of bed a television executive woke up on that morning.”^^^^^FUTUREOFBOXING.....we've had this conversation, haven't we? I know I've posted a thread on it, as well as you have.“But the biggest problem that boxing faces,” DuBoef continues, “is that we’re cutting off the flow of content to the consumer. If you go back in history, media rode the shoulders of boxing content. Boxing was on the cutting edge of newspapers, magazines, radio, and television; all of which brought boxing to more and more people. Now we’re locked into a business model where fewer and fewer people see our best content. The contraction started when HBO paid large license fees to lure boxing away from free broadcast television. HBO is in the subscriber business; not the boxing business. It took a product that was in ninety million homes and put it on a much smaller platform, and the demographic was further diminished when HBO put boxing on a pay-per-view platform. That took the product away from even more consumers and further marginalized the sport. Now we’ve lost the flow of big fights to consumers. We’ve lost regularly-scheduled big fights. We’ve lost our foundation for the sport. We have to loosen the grip of the current economic model and expose more people to the sport.”
“The current economic model is about appealing to a handful of television executives, not fans,” DuBoef elaborates. “And the lack of vision, the lack of knowledge, and the behavior of some of these executives is very disappointing to me. Maybe I was naïve, but I expected more. Once upon a time, I assumed that the people who bought fights for the networks understood the business. Many of them don’t. And I thought that they’d be guided by a desire for the best content because that’s the best way to sell their product and serve their subscribers. But that’s not necessarily the way they operate. Let’s be honest. Most of these guys are in the job-preservation business. Bob gets angry when he talks about it. I say, the television networks are what they are, just like the world sanctioning bodies are what they are. They’re part of our world, and we’ll deal with it.”
This is some very positive news, for a change. Thanks and green K to F.O.B. and natas206Comment
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duBoef knows his boxing. The best thing about it is that he's young and it's in his best interest to look out for the long term health of the sport instead of the short term view that his predecessors took.
As long as the cash in-cash out King/Arum model is in place, boxing will be looking at it from a short term perspective and remain as somewhat of a niche sport.Comment
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Well I hope it changes soon because the product is so under exposed as is and the only fans of the sport are hardcore ones. The same ppl who keep putting money into it and keep the sport alive are getting a pretty ****ty deal with all of these sub par PPVs every month now and lack of boxing on free tv.Comment
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Good lookin out on this article
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duBoef seems to be a very bright guy that will help boxing immensely going into the future.
All he didn't talk about that needed to be were the actual matchups and not being afraid to throw your guy in there with the best. And improvement of the televised PPV undercard.“I’m very proud of Pacquiao-Clottey,” DuBoef says. “I think what we did in seven weeks to create that event was amazing. But I should have explored making a deal with ESPN for that fight. HBO brought nothing to the promotion. They wouldn’t even do a 24/7 series. They did The Road to Dallas as a promo piece. One show. ESPN would have given us four “Roads to Dallas” in 90,000,000 homes. Bob is a creature of habit. He likes things that are familiar and the way they are. But if I had it to do over again; absolutely, I’d discuss Pacquiao-Clottey with ESPN, with CBS, with Showtime. I’m not looking to rock the boat. But I am looking to grow the audience.”
“When Top Rank and Main Events co-promoted Holyfield-Foreman [in 1991], there were 16,000,000 homes that were addressable for pay-per-view. The fight did 1,400,000 buys. That’s a nine-percent buy rate. Now we have 77,000,000 homes that are addressable for pay-per-view. A nine-percent buy rate would translate into 6,900,000 buys. How do we get to that nine-percent number again? On what platform? At what price? Suppose, for a full month, every time you went to Google, you saw banner that said, ‘Click here to order Pacquiao-Mayweather’? That would be a lot bigger than 24/7.”
“The media world is changing by the month and year now; not by the year and decade. Before long, people will be watching pay-per-view on the Internet on a regular basis. There will be a conversion. That’s inevitable. The question is, ‘Who will be the gatekeeper?’ Will it be Google? AT&T? Yahoo? AOL? YouTube? Apple? You can put anything you want online, but you have to create awareness. Once we decide how to create major awareness for pay-per-view online, the technology will take over.”
“But we also have to get boxing back into people’s homes without it being too expensive for our prospective fan base. CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox are in 110,000,000 homes. That would be nice. But if we could get a platform like TNT or TBS to put its arm around boxing the way ****e did with UFC, that would be enough. That would give us 90,000,000 homes; three times as many homes as HBO; almost six times as many homes as Showtime.”Comment
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My only concern is DuBoef trying to turn Top Rank into the UFC of boxing. That seems to be the business model they seem to be trying to transition too right now, only making fights between boxers under contract with them and no co-promoting with anyone.
DuBoef is a smart guy though, and he has the right ideas about growing the sport.Comment
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Sounds good and all but he's a ***en promoter its what they do.either way no one can be worse then arumComment
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