Comments Thread For: Team Khan on Sky Sports Split, Sky Says No To Bradley

[Rome-By-Ko]

Khan has already stated that he wants to fight Bradley and he has the tools needed to beat him. This spat with Sky Sports won't change anything as Khan is more closely affiliated with HBO and they ultimately call the shots regarding who Khan does and doesn't fight. Khan's next fight will be Bradley in July, and when he beats him, you will be wishing he would have ducked.

Sure if ya say so...Anyway back to reality,as long as it's 50/50 we will see this fight I really doubt Bradley takes anything less..Oh and Bradley is his own fighter not being controlled by anybody..Khan should take a page from his book,but tbh I don't believe HBO has that much say like you are claiming on who Khan fights..Or at least I hope that is not the case..

[BetterCallSaul]

yeah, or more likely - Team Khan will go crawling back to sky after he gets 5000ppv buys on primtime and makes feck all money and sky will carry on as normal, only with promoters now more woried about trying to sell them **** cards and upping their game.

I dont see why sky would turn down Khan Bradley, sounds like a load of bollocks - or a bluff to get Khan to agree to fight on SS3. They'd show it, they've been talking about it for months

Sky probably said if Team Khan refuses Sky Sports 3 then they won't air his future fights. Of course they will, but then again they may cut Khan off for good. It's not as if he makes Sky any money, and a Bradley PPV isn't exactly going to make them rich.

[shade darkar]

sky are right. i wouldnt believe the bollocks about not being interested in bradley fight. that'll be team khan giving out ultimatums. let him fcuk off to primetime, very few people have that channel anyway. khan will lose out in the long run.

[BetterCallSaul]

Sure if ya say so...Anyway back to reality,as long as it's 50/50 we will see this fight I really doubt Bradley takes anything less..Oh and Bradley is his own fighter not being controlled by anybody..Khan should take a page from his book,but tbh I don't believe HBO has that much say like you are claiming on who Khan fights..Or at least I hope that is not the case..

HBO are obviously lining up Khan and Bradley to fight in the summer. A date has already been earmarked and terms have been discussed. And a fight with Bradley will probably be settled as a 50-50 split because Khan no longer has the backing of Sky, thus Bradley won't be able to make the British PPV an issue.

[thack]

Wrong idea

Saj, let me explain to you how this works, Khan v mcCloskey is NOT my friend a P.P.V. fight.
Only as part of a very good card would this be accepted and the card is crap.
The reason for Groves/Degale box office is that it's backed by at least one world title as it alone does not warrant ppv status.
But ask any boxing fan which fight Khan/ McCloskey or Degale /Groves they sooner watch ...you'll have your answer.Also it seems the Maidana/Morales fight my have also taken away some of the Khan shine, it has for me.
I hope this helps you to understand this sport a little better and yes it is a business but beware you're trying this at a time when we are still reeling from the crimes of the bankers!

[Rick Grimes]

Sky television have pulled the plug completely on Ami Khan's world title fight against Paul McCloskey this Saturday night.

Sunday's failure to come to terms for a normal Sky Sports broadcast – following the network's decision to axe the pay-per-view screening – leaves the promotion at Manchester's MEN Arena in financial turmoil.

Khan's fourth defence of his light-welterweight championship is likely now to be relegated to the fringe Primetime Cable channel, which has been picking up Carl Froch’s recent Super Six world super-middleweight title fights.

Sky had hoped the promoters would accept a token fee for a regular channel slot in return for the wider audience which would build Khan’s projected world title unification bout with America’s Tim Bradley into a midsummer pay-TV bonanza.

But with Northern Ireland’s unbeaten Paul McCloskey already having been paid a reduced purse of £100,000 and Khan accepting a £1 million pay cut, down to £250,000, Khan and Hatton Promotions appear ready to accept a marginally higher bid from Primetime. This will supplement the American rights fees for a tape-delay screening paid by HBO.

A sell-out 16,000 crowd – which looks probable with almost 14,000 seats sold already – might enable the event to break even so the show is expected to go on. But this saga is sure to damage the relationship between Khan and Sky.

The implications for televised boxing, and the big pay days for top fighters that go with it, are serious also.

Behind a back-drop of the mega-millions earned by the likes of Manny Pacquaio, Sky have been propping up the business here. Even Ricky Hatton’s high profile fight with Pacquaio registered just 300,000 pay-TV hits on Sky Box Office, while advance sales for this Khan-McCloskey bout had reached barely 50.

Khan’s team are aggrieved that their TV partners moved the goal-posts so late but Sky were also concerned by the lack of quality remaining on the partially collapsing undercard being put together by Hatton.

A proposed heavyweight clash between Britain’s Tyson Fury and Hasim Rahman, who once knocked out Lennox Lewis, fell through and Matthew Macklin pulled out of a championship fight.

That, following the fiasco of Audley Harrison’s timid pay-per-view challenge for David Haye’s world heavyweight title, has deepened Sky’s concern that their subscribers have not been getting value for money.

Primetime figures for this fight are unlikely to exceed by many, if any, the roughly 50,000 viewers for Froch’s exploits.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/oth...McCloskey.html

His fights on ITV used to get decent numbers, but people just aren't willing to pay to watch his fights.

[Rome-By-Ko]

HBO are obviously lining up Khan and Bradley to fight in the summer. A date has already been earmarked and terms have been discussed. And a fight with Bradley will probably be settled as a 50-50 split because Khan no longer has the backing of Sky, thus Bradley won't be able to make the British PPV an issue.

Sounds good to me let's see how it plays out,Khan has low-balled fighters before..As for Khan having the style to beat Bradley,I'm pretty sure he felt the same way about Prescott..

[dvb]

khan will lose out on fans by going to primtime,i do prefer streams of HBO broadcasts tbh anyway.

Sky and team khan should have sorted out undercard and 2nd choice undercard fights way before now!.

[David1976]

Khan's fanbase isn't as large as Hatton's. Hatton could demmand PPV because it was a cast iron guarantee that there would be fireworks in the ring. With Khan it has been hit and miss at best. Primetime will do him no favours with their mediocre low def experience. £1m loss?! How much does he pay out to chumps?

[arw]

HAHAHA Classic...I hope his career falls to pieces...Khan will never be as popular as NAZ or Hatton...Generally PPL in the UK don't like greed and team Khan have shown their greed way to often so that definitely ain't gonna do him any favours here.

Lets see what the US public make of him after a few years.