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Guys and Ladies,
I need your opinions and hope for intelligent feedback. This is not a discussion about who is the best middleweight and who sucks, but more about hopefully making exciting fights happen.
Commuting to work this AM, I started thinking about the sad state of boxing today. All the inter-network BS and manager/promoter BS.
There was a time when very interesting and intriguing bouts were put together in a successful tournament format, I'm referring to Super Six World Boxing Classic.
How about this:
Pull together Canelo, GGG, Jacobs, Saunders (all current belt holders), and Lemieux and Lee (recent belt holders) for a Middleweight Super Six (S6) Tournament. If we want to go to Super 8 (S8), maybe add another 2 out of Quillin, Geale, Eubank, N'dam, Johnson.
For S6 make the tourney Round Robin, and then best 2 guys fight it out for the Title/Championship. Total of 16 fights (15 Round Robin plus Championship fight) and tourney length of 18-24 months.
For S8, split into 2 groups and fight Round Robin, and then the group leaders fight for the Title/Championship. Total of 13 fights and tourney length 18 months.
And then schedule 3(4 for S8) bouts in Feb/March, May/June, Aug/Sep, and Nov/Dec.
You have to admit, this does sound intriguing, but I'm sure many are wondering about the economics of this coming together.This probably is the most important factor in putting such tournament together.
How about the following. I'll just show the math for S6 format, but similar principle can be applied to S8:
For each bout, each fighter gets guaranteed $2 Million (MM) or $4MM purse/fight. Championship fight guaranteed sums for winner of $10MM and runner-up of $5MM, plus maybe additional pays from marketing, gate, and other revenue streams.
So taking my guaranteed payouts, the tournament purse is $75 MM.
Here is how money can be raised:
All fights are co-promoted by HBO/Sho, and perhaps other international companies.
Sell all fights as PPV, each individual bouts @ $69.99, with an option for a wholesale/prepay type of pricing; such as get all 3 fights for every installment at $150 (or $49.99/bout), or get all of the tournament 16 fights for $640 ($39.99/bout).
Given that we have participants from US, UK, Canada, Russia/Kazakhstan, I believe sports bars and similar venues can easily generate 100,000 pre-buys for a some variation of the wholesale pricing which should gives us anywhere between $50-64 Million. That leaves us at about $10-25MM short.
However, I strongly believe that taking into account individual fight PPV buys, venue gate collections, marketing and broadcasting rights, and other revenue streams, HBO/SHO can make this a very profitable exercise. My estimate is that they can easily generate north of $200 Million in revenue for the whole tournament.
We all know, that if put together, this tournament will generate more interest and demand as it starts rolling.
About fighters, with the exception of Canelo, most of them never made $2MM per fight. Thus, given my proposed economics, having an option to make $10MM guaranteed for 5 fights within 15-18 months, I believe should be a no brainier for them.
Perhaps, Canelo can have a separate stipulation in terms of revenue sharing of his individual PPV buys.
I hope you enjoyed my write up, and I can't wait to hear from you.
Regards and Happy Holidays to All!!!
I need your opinions and hope for intelligent feedback. This is not a discussion about who is the best middleweight and who sucks, but more about hopefully making exciting fights happen.
Commuting to work this AM, I started thinking about the sad state of boxing today. All the inter-network BS and manager/promoter BS.
There was a time when very interesting and intriguing bouts were put together in a successful tournament format, I'm referring to Super Six World Boxing Classic.
How about this:
Pull together Canelo, GGG, Jacobs, Saunders (all current belt holders), and Lemieux and Lee (recent belt holders) for a Middleweight Super Six (S6) Tournament. If we want to go to Super 8 (S8), maybe add another 2 out of Quillin, Geale, Eubank, N'dam, Johnson.
For S6 make the tourney Round Robin, and then best 2 guys fight it out for the Title/Championship. Total of 16 fights (15 Round Robin plus Championship fight) and tourney length of 18-24 months.
For S8, split into 2 groups and fight Round Robin, and then the group leaders fight for the Title/Championship. Total of 13 fights and tourney length 18 months.
And then schedule 3(4 for S8) bouts in Feb/March, May/June, Aug/Sep, and Nov/Dec.
You have to admit, this does sound intriguing, but I'm sure many are wondering about the economics of this coming together.This probably is the most important factor in putting such tournament together.
How about the following. I'll just show the math for S6 format, but similar principle can be applied to S8:
For each bout, each fighter gets guaranteed $2 Million (MM) or $4MM purse/fight. Championship fight guaranteed sums for winner of $10MM and runner-up of $5MM, plus maybe additional pays from marketing, gate, and other revenue streams.
So taking my guaranteed payouts, the tournament purse is $75 MM.
Here is how money can be raised:
All fights are co-promoted by HBO/Sho, and perhaps other international companies.
Sell all fights as PPV, each individual bouts @ $69.99, with an option for a wholesale/prepay type of pricing; such as get all 3 fights for every installment at $150 (or $49.99/bout), or get all of the tournament 16 fights for $640 ($39.99/bout).
Given that we have participants from US, UK, Canada, Russia/Kazakhstan, I believe sports bars and similar venues can easily generate 100,000 pre-buys for a some variation of the wholesale pricing which should gives us anywhere between $50-64 Million. That leaves us at about $10-25MM short.
However, I strongly believe that taking into account individual fight PPV buys, venue gate collections, marketing and broadcasting rights, and other revenue streams, HBO/SHO can make this a very profitable exercise. My estimate is that they can easily generate north of $200 Million in revenue for the whole tournament.
We all know, that if put together, this tournament will generate more interest and demand as it starts rolling.
About fighters, with the exception of Canelo, most of them never made $2MM per fight. Thus, given my proposed economics, having an option to make $10MM guaranteed for 5 fights within 15-18 months, I believe should be a no brainier for them.
Perhaps, Canelo can have a separate stipulation in terms of revenue sharing of his individual PPV buys.
I hope you enjoyed my write up, and I can't wait to hear from you.
Regards and Happy Holidays to All!!!
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