Ward on BET gets 325K viewers

[Chrismart]

'Big Mama's House 2' is on next Saturday. I bet that gets more viewers.

[bigjavi973]

As I asked Barcham and T18Z, did you see Ward say this or are you speculating based on his previous purses?

As I said previously, your argument is flawed because every fight/fighter doesn't belong on PPV. GGG and ward may NEVER be PPv stars. That fact shouldn't prevent this fight from happening.

HBO can easily afford that amount. This isn't some minor TV station.

But they are not gonna take a chance on GGG losing and his marketability as this "killer" going down with it.

[lefthook2daliva]

you guys go so far out of the way to let us know how embarassed ward made you when he outclassed carl froch

as if you care at all about american TV ratings.

This Ward over Froch/Kessler butthurt is beginning to approach KTFO6 levels.

It's notable because though time heals all wounds, this particular brand of butthurt seems to intensify as time passes.

They are about to go full P@ctard.

Never go full P@ctard.

[TheBoxingfan101]

add to that the free tickets they gave out loool

this guy genuinely thinks he could sell out wembley with froch, no way lool

[The Big Dunn]

HBO exists to make money, not as a charity for spoiled fighters with an overinflated sense of self worth like Ward. It was widely reported in the various boxing media that Ward had been sent on his way by both Showtime and HBO due to his purse demands for his tune up fights.

For this fight to be on regular HBO, Ward has to be ready to accept regular HBO broadcast B side money. You are correct in saying that GGG on his own may never be a PPV star. In fact once Floyd and Manny retire, there may never be another solo PPB star for a generation or more, if ever again. All PPV fights may be based on the combination of fighters.

That being said, it is HBO's choice that they want this fight to be PPV level before accepting it. That is their choice due to the expense involved in the fight. You don't have to like it or accept it. I don't think HBO give a damn. They just want to make money, not lose it.

Agreed, which is why I think HBO doesn't want to make ward/GGG. They think Ward wins, which could hurt GGG's future ratings and HBO's long term profitability.

Why would HBO risk a guy they built up who makes relatively little and does huge ratings with a a guy who for whatever reason doesn't attract casual fans.

We are on the same page, it's just you refuse to see profitability outside of GGG winning.

hbo boxing has a budget distinct from hbo as a whole. they simply will not pay $6m or whatever for <2m viewers. if ward was willing to accept lower than $2m the fight would have been made already. you're living in a fantasy world if you think he's going to fight golovkin for less than he got against smith and rodriguez when his whole reason for calling out golovkin is to get paid. once again: k2 already approached hbo about facing ward and hbo and ward said no - that means the fight doesn't make financial sense yet

Again, you don't know what Ward is willing to accept. You have arbitrarily landed on a number that just happens to make your argument valid.

The fight might NEVER make financial sense. GGG isn't Floyd or Manny, fighters who have reached a point in their careers where financial sense is what matters.

To act as if GGG is in the same place is utterly ridiculous.

GGG may never be anything more than an HBO fighter that only goes on PPV when he is the B side. That's shouldn't mean this fight doesn't get made.

Profitability is the concern, but not like you state. HBO is concerned about GGG becoming the next Nonito-a guy they invested huge in that took the wrong fight that ended up wasting all that investment.

[bigjavi973]

Shelby Pudwill. 'Poo Bear' Buchanan. Nothing more need be said.

You are right! Ward should have gone after the Boxcino Tourney winners instead!

That still doesnt change the FACT

Ward resume > GGG resume

Here:

[Barcham]

Essentially, these #'s show that even hardcore fans didn't care all that much. I honestly thought that it would do better, since Ward has done good #'s on HBO. What were the #'s for Lemieux/N'Dam? I doubt they were any better.

I can't find any numbers at all for the Lemieux fight. It seems that it did not even make the top 100 cable shows on the night.

I don't know what those ratings mean, as I'm not sure what Roc Nation's goals for ratings were, but I do know that Andre Ward looked great.

Yes he was fighting Paul Smith, but he was sharp, accurate, and willing to close the show. This Ward should be welcomed back to HBO with open arms.

The numbers mean that out of a possible 90 million viewers, only 325 thousand decided to bother tuning in.

just so that you know: canelo made a ppv vs fuccing angulo and both were coming off loses, the ppv did 375k buys enough to pay canelo-gbp around 10 mill, angulo 1 mill and showtime made another 10 mill for them selves ..
canelo made 5mill vs kirkland(1mill) on regular hbo... he also made similar money vs noname lara on ppv... as popular as ggg is i dont see why cant they find a way to make 4 mill to split on both fighters...

Because chances are very good that Ward would want around 5 million for his end alone. If he got 2 million for Smith...

Ward has a rich promoter and a rich contract. Why doesn't Roc Nation foot the bill for the fight? They want to build Ward back up so let them make an offer.

[bigjavi973]

Essentially, these #'s show that even hardcore fans didn't care all that much. I honestly thought that it would do better, since Ward has done good #'s on HBO. What were the #'s for Lemieux/N'Dam? I doubt they were any better.

I wouldn't even count them honestly. Lots of people didn't have fox sports 2

[NEETzsche]

But they are not gonna take a chance on GGG losing and his marketability as this "killer" going down with it.

stop being obtuse. as has been explained repeatedly in this thread and others like it, the fight won't happen because it's not profitable yet. i'm not in the business of making excuses - i'd be happy to see the fight tomorrow - i'm merely trying to explain the actual material reasons that the fight can't take place right now

k2 and golovkin already agreed to face ward once, so you can drop the talk about them being afraid. ward still hasn't refuted golovkin's accusation that he declined the fight, so we can assume that it was true, which means that by your logic andre ward is the one who's scared

[The Big Dunn]

But they are not gonna take a chance on GGG losing and his marketability as this "killer" going down with it.

yes. Posters like Barcham and Meetzche understand the profitability argument, but will not discuss it outside of GGG winning and HBO making money.

Loss of investment is also related to profitability, they just choose not to discuss that.