Comments Thread For: Photos: Adonis Stevenson, Karpency Go Face To Face

[BostonGuy]

Wow, Lennox Lewis shaved the dreads off!

[superchamp]

Another problem that these PBC fights on CBS and Spike have been addressing is that that the regular HBO broadcasts from Quebec that feature Canadian fighters are blacked out in the rest of Canada (because they are sold as PPV all across Canada due to the fact that it's all technically the same market in terms of licensing), so there has never been an opportunity for english speaking Canada to be exposed to fighters like Stevenson, Bute, Lemieux, Pascal, etc on regular TV.

[Beercules]

Damn what a **** fight

[RSBonos]

I know it looks a bit comical, but they are really trying to get some buzz for this card because they are trying to revive the big time boxing scene in Toronto, a big city that has been devoid of big fights for 30 years.

Well they sure made the right move with this matchmaking

I live like 10 mins away and would never consider going.

[ea22]

I know it looks a bit comical, but they are really trying to get some buzz for this card because they are trying to revive the big time boxing scene in Toronto, a big city that has been devoid of big fights for 30 years. (A big part of that has to do with the Ontario commission's same day weigh in policy, which is out of step with the rest of the world, and also some other policies like the amount of gauze that can be used, that have made staging big fights there problematic.)

That's why they are parading around Lennox Lewis and George Chuvalo, as well as putting Razor Ruddock on the card, because they are fan favourites in Toronto and some of the last fighters that were relevant there. Stevenson is from Quebec and does not have a following in Toronto, a city which typically only cares about the Blue Jays and the Maple Leafs.

That said, there's a market of 12 million people in the surrounding area that have not been addressed at all by the boxing scene in Montreal and Quebec City, mainly due to the cultural/language barrier. The Quebec scene is so popular that all the fights are on PPV, but none of the fighters have had much exposure outside of Quebec, so the PPVs don't sell well (or at all) outside of Quebec, leaving essentially the rest of Canada on the table.

If the promoters are successful and are able to garner enough interest for this event in Ontario, it could open up another very large market in Canada, especially english speaking Canada (over 20-25 million people), which would be great.

I don't know if it will work, but I'm not going to complain about them trying.

Why not give Toronto a better fight than Karpersky? I am not sure this counts as trying.

[dirty fingers]

Damn what a **** fight

Shite of the year candidate!

[RoastTeamCon]

I was actually going to goto this fight but since they got Ruddock on this card, Im definitely not going unless, Spence fights someone good.

[superchamp]

Why not give Toronto a better fight than Karpersky? I am not sure this counts as trying.

That's a fair point, but if Stevenson knocks him out in spectacular fashion and looks good doing it he might gain some traction among fans. Besides, since the Kovalev fight is obviously not happening any time soon, there aren't a lot of interesting options out there for him aside from maybe a Hopkins fight, which would probably sell well but wouldn't really interest me much at this point. Hopkins is also with HBO/GBP right now and I don't think they are interested in doing business with Haymon.

The Ruddock fight is a farce, but is for the Canadian Heavyweight title, which unfortunately would typically be as big a selling point that could be made for boxing in Canada outside of Quebec right now.

Tyson Cave and Errol Spence are also fighting on the card.

We'll see how it works out, especially with a 50 year old Ruddock seemingly getting airtime on Spike TV, but I will keep my hopes up.

[superchamp]

Again, I'm not trying to sell anyone on this card, just pointing out the fact that it literally is the biggest and most meaningful card that has happened in Toronto in 30 years, as sad as that may be.

You've got to start somewhere I guess.

[El-blanco]

Again, I'm not trying to sell anyone on this card, just pointing out the fact that it literally is the biggest and most meaningful card that has happened in Toronto in 30 years, as sad as that may be.

You've got to start somewhere I guess.

Yeah, we've gotten the shaft for years which is why despite how **** this is, I'm going. The last big fight I remember, even in the surrounding area, was a showtime card that had acelino freitas. That was 15 years ago, I still have the stub lol.