Comments Thread For: Golovkin's Promoter on Saunders Fallout, Canelo is Top Fall Target

[OnePunch]

Why does it matter if the fight registers with casual fans?

You guys are boxing fans. A style matchup like this should be something you want to see. Its going to involve boxing and moving and cutting off the ring, attributes casual fans do not care about.

Lara would force GGG to do things we haven't seen him do. Using more of his skills or different skills may not mean he gets an easy KO, but it will give more indication if he is a complete fighter.

Nothing wrong with a fight geared toward the real fans as opposed to a mindless brawl or easy KO win that attracts those who could care less about the sport.

Except thats not in the best interests of the network, and that is who makes the decision. I remember when they did Calzaghe - Kessler for the "real" fans, and it bombed horribly......

[HeroBando]

or, his movement would tire GGG and give him chances to score to the point where he might score an upset. Tuareano Johnson can't move so he has no chance.

We will never know unless the fight gets made. Its just a shame that HBO has conditioned boxing fans to not like boxing but rather punching out a low skilled opponent that has no chance.

It's nothing to do with HBO, viewers know what they like. Lara was booed vs Canelo which was Showtime. Ditto Smith, Delvin

[The Big Dunn]

I think GGG would beat Lara. But I think there's the potential there for GGG to look bad in victory. Which is a huge risk when you're building a monster.

Very true. I would agree its more likely GGG would win and not look great then Lara winning.

GGG cuts the ring like Chavez Sr in his prime.

That's one of the reasons I love watching him fight, and why I know that Lara wouldn't have to worry about being robbed by the judges if they ever fought.

I would think a fight with a Lara would give you a better indication of this than say a fight with Monroe Jr.

My only point is this is the kind of fight boxing fans should want. The sport need not cater to those who invest less than an hour a month to it.

[The Big Dunn]

Except thats not in the best interests of the network, and that is who makes the decision. I remember when they did Calzaghe - Kessler for the "real" fans, and it bombed horribly......

SO what. just because that fight didn't do well doesn't mean this will not.

What isn't in the best interest of HBO is having GGG fight a tough fight or a an opponent that offers a different challenge than the usual.

Shame. Could get an epic fight.

It's nothing to do with HBO, viewers know what they like. Lara was booed vs Canelo which was Showtime. Ditto Smith, Delvin

You didn't hear any viewers booing, you heard Canelo fans booing because they were only there to see Canelo get a KO and when that didn't happen they got upset.

[kafkod]

lol. And now you're trying to argue that Lara, after having his last 10 fights on big-time TV (HBO, Showtime, SHOPPV, ESPN, and SpikeTV), isn't worth even talking to, yet K2 was happy to pay nearly $3m to try and get ****ing Billy Joe Saunders to fight? gtfoh.

Golovkin would be walking into the ring with his first opponent, in his entire ****ing professional career, that most boxing fans will acknowledge as being a legit fighter, yet folks like you are still looking to find a way to duck.

And please quit it with that "fighting Kovalev on HBO is more money than Stevenson could get for a single fight in his career" bull****. Adonis Stevenson, since moving over to Showtime, has headlined four fights, three of which were sold on PPV in Canada, with all four fights drawing from his strong profile in Quebec.

Stevenson-Fonfara 2 on Showtime/Canadian PPV, in all honestly, likely puts more money in Stevenson's pocket than HBO's below-market nonsense offer.

GTFOH with that crap!

Every one of Stevenson's bum fights since Fonfara has bombed in the ratings.

He's earned good money for them - courtesy of Waddell & reed again - but not as much as he could have earned for fighting Kovalev on HBO PPV.

And if you really think that Lara, with 2 defeats, 2 draws, a sub world title at SWW, and a reputation for being a boring, spoiling runner, could be built into bigger fight for GGG than unification with the undefeated WBO MW champ Saunders, you are out of your mind.

And, apart from that, Saunders would have saved Golovkin from having to fight his mando, Johnson next. If GGG fights Lara instead, he can kiss goodbye to his IBF title.

[jqSide]

Wow. Haymon/PBC fanatics bashing HBO avoiding fights for his top fighters, of all people.

I still have yet to see Lara tackle one of the Charlo brothers. He'd rather fight almost retired Rodriguez and Zaveck. Wow.

[hitking]

we hear this same "investment" argument when idiots talk about GGG-Ward and say "ooooohhhhh HBO protecting their boy GGG", even though HBO has FAR more money invested in Ward than they do GGG. But why let FACTS interfere?

Bottom line is HBO's boxing budget represents such a tiny fraction of their overall budget, I doubt they care one way or the other who wins or who loses, as long as people watch. They still gave Gatti HBO dates even with 6 or 7 losses on his record.

So spare me the "HBO protecting investment" nonsense. What HBO doesnt want is a stinker like Rigo / Lara putting their viewers to sleep, or having them change the channel.......

How do you explain a guy like Floyd becoming the highest grossing fighter in history? Or a guy like Hopkins becoming a guy that enjoyed a lil bit of mainstream success? Both were "boring" fighters that people eventually had go pay attention to. The facts show that if you keep winning long enough. And win at a high level long enough. People are gonna pay to see you.

Lara STILL hasn't been convincingly beaten. And right now, there's a good percentage of people that thought he beat Canelo. So what does GGG have to lose by fighting him? Even if its not PPV. His fight with Johnson isn't gonna be PPV either. And there's no way you can tell me that beating Johnson does more for GGG than beating Lara. So why not try and make it happen. Lara is the best available guy willing to fight GGG. Match em up.

[kafkod]

Why does it matter if the fight registers with casual fans?

You guys are boxing fans. A style matchup like this should be something you want to see. Its going to involve boxing and moving and cutting off the ring, attributes casual fans do not care about.

Lara would force GGG to do things we haven't seen him do. Using more of his skills or different skills may not mean he gets an easy KO, but it will give more indication if he is a complete fighter.

Nothing wrong with a fight geared toward the real fans as opposed to a mindless brawl or easy KO win that attracts those who could care less about the sport.

Very true. I would agree its more likely GGG would win and not look great then Lara winning.



I would think a fight with a Lara would give you a better indication of this than say a fight with Monroe Jr.

My only point is this is the kind of fight boxing fans should want. The sport need not cater to those who invest less than an hour a month to it.

Personally, I would enjoy seeing GGG cut the ring on Lara and knock him TFO.

I would also be very interested to see the reaction from the GGG hate squad at this forum.

Like, would they give GGG some respect, at last, or would Lara be magically transformed from a boogie man to a tomato can overnight?

But I can also see many reasons why K2 won't be opting for Lara next, now that BJS is out of the frame.

[Scipio2009]

Just because a fight between 2 Haymon fighters doesn't actually screen on a PBC show is no reason to believe that Haymon is not using Waddell & Reed's money to fund it.

As I understand it, he has free reign to use that war chest in whatever way he believes will ultimately benifit the venture as a whole. 2 of his fighters contesting a world title on Showtime definitely fits the bill.

It's good to see that international TV rights, sponsorships and live gate money are at last being aknowledged as a factor in judging the success of a boxing show, rather than just the US live TV viewing numbers.

I wish the people who constantly harp on about GGG/Lemieux being a dud would also take those factors into account. K2 made more money from international TV rights and PPV sales on that fight than from any other show they have ever staged in the US.

Waddell & Reed put their money into the PBC effort, with Haymon heading the effort; using money allocated for PBC for things outside of that is easily grounds for being sued, especially if the PBC effort faces any liquidity issues late (not sure what the actual legal term would be, but fiduciary misconduct would be the start of any charges).

Lastly, Golovkin-Lemieux, based solely on the purse for the main event and the co-feature, started off $3.9m in the hole. You add in the costs for the rest of the fight card and you're likely in the hole $4m before selling anything. On top of that, you've got to also consider the costs behind putting on the show, logistically (renting the big room at MSG, marketing the fight, handling all of the various logistics needed to get the fight sanctioned, etc); all that likely adds another $1m-$2m in cost to the event, at least.

From there, you're left with counting backwards; the PPV, the lion's share of the proceeds for the event, sold anywhere from 100k-150k PPVs. Discounting the share going to the cable companies and the share that went to HBO, you're looking at $2.5m-$3m in PPV revenue into the pot. Even if the live gate did end up being $2m, you're still looking at another $1m-$2m to break even, let alone to have K2 walk away with actually making money.

Klitschko-Jennings (which aired on regular HBO) likely made significantly more money for K2 than Golovkin-Lemieux and that's without much doubt.

[The Big Dunn]

Personally, I would enjoy seeing GGG cut the ring on Lara and knock him TFO.

I would also be very interested to see the reaction from the GGG hate squad at this forum.

Like, would they give GGG some respect, at last, or would Lara be magically transformed from a boogie man to a tomato can overnight?

But I can also see many reasons why K2 won't be opting for Lara next, now that BJS is out of the frame.

I can't control what trolls will do. I would give GGG credit for the win, assuming its not controversial.

I would also like to see what would happen if GGG loses. I expect his fans would conduct themselves like Manny, Nonito and Matthysse fans when they lost. Maybe they will shock me and be civil.