PPV questions.

[BoliviaChiLEsp]

Hi, I've always had doubts about PPV and, please, I would like you to answer my questions.


When is a fight considered PPV? For instance, GGG vs. Lemieux.

Why it was PPV?

Is PPV system the only way to pay the purses for this fight?

In general, is PPV the only system to give boxers purses of more than $10M?


Thanks in advance.

[original zero]

HBO's boxing budget is a mere fraction of what it once was. As the end of the year approaches, they're usually tapped out and often can't afford big fights.

Lemieux's promoter was basically selling his belt and wanted big money, more than HBO could accomodate. GGG really wanted that belt, so PPV became the only way to make the fight happen.

Even though nobody expected the fight to sell well, it sold well enough to get the bills paid and get GGG the belt he wanted.

GGG was guaranteed $2 million and Lemieux was guaranteed $1.5 million

In terms of boxers making more than $10 million, in the US, pay-per-view is the only way to make that happen.

There may be fighters overseas, like Klitschko, that can generate that kind of money without having to air on PPV in the US.

[Scipio2009]

Hi, I've always had doubts about PPV and, please, I would like you to answer my questions.


When is a fight considered PPV? For instance, GGG vs. Lemieux.

Why it was PPV?

Is PPV system the only way to pay the purses for this fight?

In general, is PPV the only system to give boxers purses of more than $10M?


Thanks in advance.

PPV is generally left for bouts that feature big enough fights, and big enough fighters, that the market value for the showdown goes well beyond what a TV network would be willing to front on its own. Kovalev-Ward(top 175 vs arguably p4p #1), Ward-Golovkin (gut check time for the hyped golden boy), Fury-Wilder(two brash, outspoken top heavyweights; US vs UK), Klitschko-Wilder(old lion versus young lion), Cotto-Canelo(old lion vs young lion), Stevenson-Kovalev(long-sought full unification fight), any Mayweather fight (sport's unquestioned top star), etc.

Golovkin-Lemieux was not a fight that merited PPV; HBO being cheap is the only reason why the fight was put on PPV.

[CaneloMaidana]

PPV is a way of making fights that otherwise couldn't happen. Like with Stevenson vs Kovalev, Stevenson wants over 2 million guarantee and Kovalev wants 50-50. Now HBO isn't going to pay 4 million so that fight has to be ppv.

By the way after Golovkin vs Lemuiex flopped 2 HBO boxing executived stepped down.

[aldo5408]

I think it was just that Leoffler and abel sanchez strongly overrated gg relevance. If hbo at most pays 3M then gg should have split 1.5 with lemiux or taken a paycut .
Now hbo is forced to give that no hoper lemuix a main event date

[aldo5408]

PPV is generally left for bouts that feature big enough fights, and big enough fighters, that the market value for the showdown goes well beyond what a TV network would be willing to front on its own. Kovalev-Ward(top 175 vs arguably p4p #1), Ward-Golovkin (gut check time for the hyped golden boy), Fury-Wilder(two brash, outspoken top heavyweights; US vs UK), Klitschko-Wilder(old lion versus young lion), Cotto-Canelo(old lion vs young lion), Stevenson-Kovalev(long-sought full unification fight), any Mayweather fight (sport's unquestioned top star), etc.

Golovkin-Lemieux was not a fight that merited PPV; HBO being cheap is the only reason why the fight was put on PPV.

How is hbo being cheap when they pay at most 3M for a Championship boxing fight. Gg should have accepted 1.5M and thst way lemuix also gets 1.5M that is fair is it not? For a mismatch that seems more than fair

[Scipio2009]

How is hbo being cheap when they pay at most 3M for a Championship boxing fight. Gg should have accepted 1.5M and thst way lemuix also gets 1.5M that is fair is it not? For a mismatch that seems more than fair

Golovkin-Lemieux was aired in Canada (unclear if it was put on Canadian PPV), UK, Germany, and across most of Europe and Latin American; if you earnestly believe HBO put up near $3m for the fight, I've got some shares in FCX to sell to you.

Trying to argue that a regular HBO Tv rights deal, Canadian TV, UK TV, and German TV (among other markets) wasn't enough to cover $4m to the fighters? gtfoh.

Showtime, when faced with a similar predicament for Jacobs-Quillin, dug into their budget, and bet on the fighters that they'd been hyping up at 160, with some extra marketing materials to boot. Things didn't work out as they likely dreamed (long, drawn-out, back-and-forth battled, capped with a late, decisive finish), but they took the shot and now have a middleweight fighter who they just might be able to market as a star.

$2m out of HBO's pocket, $1m from BoxNation/SAT.1 (UK/German TV), and $1m from whomever ended up being the Canadian broadcaster and you'd have the guarantees covered for the main event, with the gate/sponsors/other TV deals covering the cost of the fight card.

[nivek535]

Hi, I've always had doubts about PPV and, please, I would like you to answer my questions.


When is a fight considered PPV? For instance, GGG vs. Lemieux.

Why it was PPV?

Is PPV system the only way to pay the purses for this fight?

In general, is PPV the only system to give boxers purses of more than $10M?


Thanks in advance.

ppv occurs when the business men decide they can profit more from that long run than not.

[j0zef]

It wasn't the only way to pay the purses (which were pretty low compared to other PPVs). They (K2 and Golovkin himself) have been talking about PPV fight for about 2 years. Golovkin has a fan friendly style and was pulling in good live HBO viewership, so they decided to give it a shot.

Don't focus on this PPV if you want to study the model. It was an experiment, and very different from every other PPV of the last 10 years. Every other PPV headliner had at least one fighter that had previous PPV exposure. Floyd had Gatti, Cotto had Manny, Canelo had Floyd, etc. This was the first time in ~10 years that 2 fighters who've never been on PPV headlined an event. I think Manny was the last time?

But in the US, you need the event to be on PPV in order to have purses greater than ~5-7M.

[BoliviaChiLEsp]

Thank you to everyone who answered my question.