Comments Thread For: CBS Sports/PBC Deal Revealed: Stevenson-Bika, More

[North Star]

Not sure about this, while boxing on network tv can be a good thing, if the product isn't any good, people won't buy it(watch it in this case). So if Haymon doesn't put on good matchups(and it doesn't seem like he is for the exception of Thurman v. Guerrero), people will simply not tune in, and if they tune in and the fights aren't any good or end controversially, they will not watch again. This could be a really good thing for boxing or an equally bad thing, with more eyes on boxing, the match-ups have to start delivering. Stevenson vs Bika is a goddamn joke but Chavez v. Fonfora is not too bad.

My thing is, casual fans are only as interested as they already are. More exposure won't generate more casual fans. To get more casual fans, you need to get them to become fans as kids. All this invested money should be spent on youth boxing programs and community networking. It's why baseball and football have become staples. The youth programs for those sports are in every single neighborhood and community. If we can get that same type of exposure for boxing, than it will improve.

[Beater_of_ass]

Stivernne v wilder was a quality fight, come on.

Anyway this is great news, and on May 9th we get non competing shows to watch.

More boxing during the day is cool because that's how i got hooked on the sport when I was young.

Let's just hope Al uses this for great fights as well as building fighters.

Come on Dunn... one good fight when you have a stable of over 150 fighters should be an insult to your intelligence. Maybe you should take that viewpoint as opposed to "You got this doe, be happy with what you get." I can't imagine if Al Haymon was known as Albert Haymongoldmanstein and was white. EVERYONE would be ****ting all over his matchups as they should be doing right now.

[AgainstTheRopes]

Come on Dunn... one good fight when you have a stable of over 150 fighters should be an insult to your intelligence. Maybe you should take that viewpoint as opposed to "You got this doe, be happy with what you get." I can't imagine if Al Haymon was known as Albert Haymongoldmanstein and was white. EVERYONE would be ****ting all over his matchups as they should be doing right now.

the matchups are nearly all competitive and mostly on free platforms

[Beater_of_ass]

looked like was protecting most of his top guys last year before he unleashed this plan of his. That doesn't mean he gets a pass but its understandable at least

Protecting them from what LMAO... what good fights are there? Danny/Lamont makes neither guy a loser, they both keep their belts why are they even fighting? Danny should be fighting Lucas for the title or even Peterson FFS. They have the nerve to say he's moving up, hasn't fought at JWW in over a year and still has the title. He was protecting them on Showtime to protect them even more on NBC?

[The Big Dunn]

Come on Dunn... one good fight when you have a stable of over 150 fighters should be an insult to your intelligence. Maybe you should take that viewpoint as opposed to "You got this doe, be happy with what you get." I can't imagine if Al Haymon was known as Albert Haymongoldmanstein and was white. EVERYONE would be ****ting all over his matchups as they should be doing right now.

Ok, so you acknowledge your "no good fights" was an over reaction. That's a start.

We know why Haymon did what he did in 2014. We also know he has been a successful businessman who isn't going to conduct things in a way that would hurt his bottom line.

We also know that there is a specific way fighters are developed from the beginning and groomed into PPV attractions. Why would we expect Haymon to deviate from this. All I'm saying is its too early for you to be complaining.

If Haymon was who you said its safe to say he'd get much less criticism. We'd be reading about "tough style matchup" and "well he's ranked #5" even though the opponents had a less than 20% chance of winning the fight.

[ea22]

Haymon's ultimate goal is to probably work out a deal similar to the one UFC has with FOX. I see him putting together great fights until he gets his deal hoping it will get ratings high to the point this networks will bid big bucks.

What he does after remains to be seen but for the near future we should get some great fights

I love boxing so I am hoping this turns turns out to be a good thing, but honestly with his track record you can't blame some of us for being skeptical. I mean Adonis is fighting a guy that just lost and belongs at 168, Peterson will keep his title even if he loses against Garcia and vice versa(although I doubt Garcia loses), and Broner is fighting a guy with two back to back losses, one by brutal submission. It seems like many promoters are not willing to make business with him, and while he has a great roster, except for a few weight classes he doesn't have the best fighters in each division, for Quillin there is Golovkin, for Adonis there is Kovalev, for Santa Cruz there is Rigo, etc. Then it seems like a lot of his fighters have a history of getting big money for very easy fights(Santa Cruz is the first that comes to mind), which means that even making decent fights will be a hard thing to do. Hopefully it goes well, I will surely be watching, maybe because Haymon has burned many bridges he will actually start putting on quality content in a consistent basis.

[Mitchell Kane]

Haymon's ultimate goal is to probably work out a deal similar to the one UFC has with FOX. I see him putting together great fights until he gets his deal hoping it will get ratings high to the point this networks will bid big bucks.

What he does after remains to be seen but for the near future we should get some great fights

The UFC deal for FOX wasn't just about getting a few fight cards on FOX in primetime every year.

Much of it was about FOX acquiring all of the UFC's programming, which is what they put on Fox Sports 1 and 2...and that includes live fight cards, undercard fights to FOX/PPV events, fight replays, the Ultimate Fighter, etc.

It will take a while for the PBC to build up a library of content that the UFC had when they made the FOX deal..and the PBC still has to show that it can garner the kind of audiences the UFC can, especially among 18-34 year old males that drive the UFC ratings and that get sponsors involved.

[kurupt1019]

It's kind of strange that all these network deals are time-buys. The networks don't lose anything, but I really don't see how this can blossom into a revenue generating machine. Casual viewers don't care for boxing. They hardly care for MMA and WWE these days and both are on the downtrend. I see this as a move to flood the market with product and hope for best. IMO, for boxing to change it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up at the amateur level to the pros. If top dollar was spent on development of the youth programs and facilities, it would translate to higher caliber boxers in the pros. Haymon is attempting the trickle down economic model here, and I don't think it is the right move. Boxing on network tv is great and all, but we need to make it a community/neighborhood sport for it to thrive again like we want it too.

dont think boxing will ever be a mainstream sport ever again, just the way it is

[ea22]

My thing is, casual fans are only as interested as they already are. More exposure won't generate more casual fans. To get more casual fans, you need to get them to become fans as kids. All this invested money should be spent on youth boxing programs and community networking. It's why baseball and football have become staples. The youth programs for those sports are in every single neighborhood and community. If we can get that same type of exposure for boxing, than it will improve.

I don't necessarily disagree, I am not hoping for boxing to become as a big as the NFL or some ****, just back to 2001 or so level of interest in the sport. As much as people love to cite Mayweather's numbers as proof for the sport doing well, if you actually look at overall boxing popularity, it has decreased substantially. I am not sure Haymon is the man for the job, because of his history, especially with his overprotected fighters, but why not hope?

[kurupt1019]

Its going to be no different than HBO. There will be great fights and there will be matches like GGG has where he is "featured".

They will develop young boxers, like HBO has done, and they will try and turn the very best into PPV attractions.

The model wont change just the people in power. So why anyone would have a complaint at this point is ridiculous.

because most hardcore boxing fans are legit ******s...