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

[Reverb]

lol

how would internet streaming for fights be "huge" when most of the audience calling for such an option don't pay for fights period, and would be unlikely to pay for fights in a stream anyway?

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.

[Mitchell Kane]

I could see a TR fighter stacked PPV card if Arum applied himself or believed in stacking PPV's, which he doesn't seem to believe in doing more often than not & maybe rightfully so I don't know the stats & details he probably knows.

But in theory you could have Crawford, Loma, Ramirez & Verdejo being a quadruple threat that appeals to many demos on a PPV together. Split up about $10M among those guys & their opponents. Think about ~500k PPV buys = break even to a small profit..

Really doubt Top Rank would put on a fight card with those fighters that would need 500k to break even.

[Mitchell Kane]

Golovkin topped out at a Loefler-stated 150k PPV buys and, at that moment, Golovkin was far more established a star as all 4 of your guys mentioned. To project out 500k PPV buys for those 4 fights (put anyone in their, as long as the 4 TR fighters are the draws in their matchups; ie Ramirez-Chavez Jr not being an option because Chavez Jr isn't taking the short money on that fight) is a bit generous.

Doubt they'd put together a fight card that would need 500k buys, and the Golovkin-Lemieux ppv numbers aren't instructive at all.

Look at the card: Golovkin, Lemieux, Gonzalez, Viloria, Ortiz, Vidondo, etc. in NYC...not exactly a lot of Mexican/Mexican American fighters on that PPV card.

For Lomachenko to fight on PPV they'd probably use a Mexican opponent (like Berchelt or Salido), with some mix of G. Ramirez, Valdez, J. Ramirez, maybe Magdaleno...but nothing that would need 500k.

[soul_survivor]

Loma is about as PPV worthy as Ward

[Motorcity Cobra]

If Arum starts a platform where I can buy fights on top rank tv I'll pay for it. But I'm not about to pay a monthly subscription to HBO and then have to pay for PPV for fights that should be on regular HBO. I'll buy a top rank tv PPV for $25. That way I can drop my HBO subscription and save money and get the fights I want to see.

[Motorcity Cobra]

Not unlike how Hopkins was able to do things, if Lomachenko beats Berchelt(mandatory defense), beats Salido in the rematch, beats Vargas for the WBC belt, beats the Corrales/Fortuna winner for the WBA belt, and then beats Jose Pedraza for the IBF belt, Arum envisions that that run alone will launch Lomachenko.

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.

[bigdunny1]

Loma is not worth the money Arum is asking for. He got paid this weekend more then DOUBLE what HBO just paid both Vargas and Salido combined the week prior. Loma is small fighter and doesn't have much of a fanbase. We will have to wait for the ratings but I doubt it does significantly better then the Vargas/Salido fight drew in ratings. Hell there is a chance it did worse ratings. So how do you justify HBO paying more money for him? If he gets more money that doesn't leave much left to pay for his opponent or fill an undercard and that's the problem. And any PPV that Loma headlines will be a financial disaster nobody is paying for that.

If Arum overpaid Loma with a ****** contract that gave him bloated guarantees for purses then that's his problem. Have Arum pay the extra money out of his own pockets. Based on the number of fans Loma draws to an arena and the viewers he draws he is not worth the money.

[BennyBlanco]

Arum:

If HBO doesn’t have the money and can’t come up with the money, then I’ll go to my pocket and do fights, like I’m doing with Crawford and Postol on pay-per-view.

LOL at Bob misrepresenting things yet again.

Pay-per-view is the promoter going into his pocket. It's actually the FIGHTER going into his pocket. The fighters will have all the risk because Bob isn't guaranteeing the fighters that same purse they would have made on premium TV.

Crawford and Postol will get low guaranteed purses with the enticement of additional upside if the PPV performs...which it won't. So Bob gets the fighters to fight for cheap and then gets to go all Mother Teresa and claim he's sacrificing money out of his own pocket to make fights.

[Mitchell Kane]

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.

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.

[BennyBlanco]

Arum is betting on Lomachenko's bet; regardless of how prudent you think it is (non-English speaking, 28-year old featherweight fighter who will likely top out at 135, with no natural US fanbase), Arum is banking on the fact that if Lomachenko keeps on winning, with time, the ability to draw will manifest itself.

Not unlike how Hopkins was able to do things, if Lomachenko beats Berchelt(mandatory defense), beats Salido in the rematch, beats Vargas for the WBC belt, beats the Corrales/Fortuna winner for the WBA belt, and then beats Jose Pedraza for the IBF belt, Arum envisions that that run alone will launch Lomachenko.

I agree that's the best case and exactly what Arum is hoping for.

But realistically, there is zero chance that a non-English speaking, 28-year old featherweight fighter who will likely top out at 135, with no natural US fanbase and little KO power, becomes a meaningful draw.

No matter how many times Arum claims that he's better than any fighter we've seen before.