Comments Thread For: Arum: HBO Must Find Money For Lomachenko, Or It's Off To PPV

[Motorcity Cobra]

Walters brings almost nothing to a Lomachenko fight.

His biggest asset before was he was a Top Rank fighter, which presumably would have made a Lomachenko fight easier to make, but that's gone out the window with his demands.

He has no title, no real audience or base of support, did awful ratings on HBO, has low visibility, and is currently inactive.

Mexican boxers have a larger base of national support and, as was the case with Vargas-Salido, bring the potential for Mexican tv dollars into the equation which can make up for a lack of HBO dollars.

What does Loma bring as far as base of support? Visibility? Ratings? Under 5000 at MSG is about what Walters did. And he didn't have the support of two Puerto Ricans on the weekend of the Puerto Rican day parade. You people are overrating Lomachenko's popularity.

[Mitchell Kane]

You don't get paid because you are a special talent. History has shown over and over that small fighters don't get paid that much no matter how special they are. History has also shown exciting fighters with large fanbases get paid more then fighters who don't have these traits but are more "special". Loma's size and the fact that he doesn't have any real fanbase to speak of limits the amount of money he is worth.

Yeah, but the "history" argument could be used to argue HBO wouldn't pay Roman Gonzalez or pay the kinds of purses they currently are to Golovkin and Kovalev.

We don't know what value HBO puts on Lomachenko, especially after the Martinez performance.

The combined purses for that fight were, what, $1.275 million?

Maybe HBO would be willing to pay $1.5 for a unification bout...or a Salido rematch.

If that's the case, then even with Lomachenko's high guarantee, maybe they're able to make some fights.

Look at the division...what are fighters like Vargas, Salido, Fortuna and Pedraza making in their recent fights?

[Mitchell Kane]

What does Loma bring as far as base of support? Visibility? Ratings? Under 5000 at MSG is about what Walters did. And he didn't have the support of two Puerto Ricans on the weekend of the Puerto Rican day parade. You people are overrating Lomachenko's popularity.

Well, in terms of the June 11th fight card...Lomachenko's base of support included Top Rank and HBO, which is why they committed to Lomachenko on that date.

The ratings probably won't be great, but the performance was...so we'll what kind of support Lomachenko has from HBO for his next fight.

[Motorcity Cobra]

Well, in terms of the June 11th fight card...Lomachenko's base of support included Top Rank and HBO, which is why they committed to Lomachenko on that date.

The ratings probably won't be great, but the performance was...so we'll what kind of support Lomachenko has from HBO for his next fight.

He has the machine behind him. I agree.

[Mitchell Kane]

He has the machine behind him.

The machine!

Look at how much he made when he fought Salido and Russell Jr.

Lomachenko bet on himself early in his career.

[casheddie]

Look at Arum going all Haymon at HBO saying f#ck budgets I'm paying my fighters what they are worth HBO be damned lol.

Overzealous much

[MASTERBX]

HBO boxing is in the toilet,no money no stars.

[Scipio2009]

I just heard the old man mentioned it again a month ago... I thought the idea had been dropped then it came up again. He didn't say it would be easy.

All i was doing was trying ot think of a PPV fight that he could put Loma vs someone good on. Surely he didn't mean Loma as a headliner, did he?

I get that; just wondering how putting on that show would work for Roc Nation, the promotional company actually bringing the fighter to the table that'd actually be drawing near all of the business.

Cotto-Marquez is still being talked up as being in play for this Fall; contract will clarify things, but Roc Nation could call Zanfer Promotions (Marquez's promoter who does business with Top Rank), book the fight, and then load the rest of the card with Roc Nation fighters that they want to elevate.

[Scipio2009]

Being someone who watches almost exclusively online, pays for it and knows many others in my immediate circle and beyond who also pay to watch via these services, I can say that is a platform which works and is growing.
Technology continues to move.

Not as a knock against you, but I doubt that your immediate circle goes beyond 50 people. As things stand today, all you have to do is look at content coming from folks with some kind of pay wall and then compare that against the folks who still want said content yet, right now, deliberately refuse to pay for it.

Technology does continue to move, but folks are running businesses before the bother with chasing technology.

[Scipio2009]

I can't see all those fights happening because of Loma's skill level fighters are going to demand more to fight him, like the situation with Walters. He's high risk low reward. He isn't a big draw himself so you don't get exposure by fighting him. The same reason K2 gave for GGG not fighting Ward. And there haven't been may non-Mexican stars that topped out at 135.

Personally, i think the Berchelt and Salido fights are as good as done (Berchelt next with the Salido fight to closeout/open up the year); from then on, it'll come down to business being done. Risk/reward is definitely a consideration, but I don't see Francisco Vargas or the Coralles/Fortuna winner having better risk/reward options than Lomachenko at 130.