Comments Thread For: Santa Cruz-Frampton Averages 480k Viewers on Showtime

[North Star]

Decent for Showtime, Their #s seem to be on the upswing

It's crazy for Lara being such a no name nobody Lara/Vanes was the second most watched fight on Showtine this year

I thought it did well too, especially against the trend that Showtime had for a number of shows. It was a great fight!

[North Star]

I know my education isnt a 1/10 of what Al Haymon has but I really question where he is going with PBC. LSC vs Frampton had FREE T.V. ALL OVER IT! After Thurman vs. Porter this wouldve been a strong move to keep the ball rolling but just like his boxers, his shows lose their momentum and people forget about them too. Only thing I can think of is this fight went up against UFC but UFC was a ppv so he couldve/shouldve treated all fight fans to something on non paid television. Showtime should only be used for guys like Broner so he can act how he wants to and not be censored.

It definitely should have been in network TV! I think the reason why it was on Showtime is because they pick up a portion of the purses for the fighters, whereas on network TV it's all coming out of the PBC budget. So I assume it helps spread the cost to put on the card.

[Motorcity Cobra]

... This was a "Showtime Championship Boxing" card, not a "Premier Boxing Champions"... which is quite different... it's true that the fighters are signed with uncle Al as "adviser", but the card itself was Showtime's... and there ain't no PBC card on Showtime...

I noticed the announcer kept saying Premier Boxing Champions and the ring said Premier Boxing Champions and Showtime.

.@leosantacruz2 landed 25% of his power shots & @RealCFrampton connected 46% that landed cleaner.

ICYMI: 11p ET/PThttps://t.co/Cr5Fon7x5W

— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) August 2, 2016

[Chiboxing123]

Damn showtime ratings are terrible

[Boxing Logic]

The crowd was hype, I was hype, NSB was hype, and looking at those numbers you would've thought all these fights were duds, this is the card that should've been on NBC and shown to the masses.

It has nothing to do with that. Haymon seems to think he can put fighters in with nobodies for five years and then everyone the whole world will suddenly tune in when they get one big fight. It doesn't work like that. Carl Frampton had never fought on Showtime, PBC, or in the USA. No casual fan here knew who he was. Frampton had also not faced anyone good his entire career before that fight unless you count Quigg, who U.S. fans don't know either and that fight was a dud.

Leo Santa Cruz also hasn't fought anyone good his entire career. He's had no big fights before. Nothing to bring fans in. He fought a halfway shot Abner Mares a whole year ago, so there's no momentum, but that's it.

It's simply not how you build boxing. You need to string together top fights one after the other, like how Pacquiao went from Barrera to Morales, multiple times, to Marquez, Oscar, Cotto, all in a relatively short amount of time. To get ratings for Leo Santa Cruz for example you have to do the Frampton fight as the opening, smallest fight in the beginning of a long stretch, not as the supposed big fight. So you start with Frampton, make a great fight, it helps their reputations. Then the winner fights Gary Russell, whoever wins, helps their reputations. Then they fight Rigondeaux 4 months later, then Valdez 4 months later, you get rematches to the most exciting fights every time, a couple rematches, you get Donaire in there because he's a knockout threat that's a great style fight, maybe Gamboa comes down and you have a very cool fight, and so on.

Then, after 5-6 top level, threatening fights, one after the other, with NO TUNEUPS in between, every 4-6 months, THEN you create fan interest. Then word of mouth spreads. Then you have a star. Then you have ratings.

But Haymon wont' let that happen anymore. He has pampered and babied his fighters telling them they can take zero risks, fight one relevant fight every 3-4 years, and expect to be high paid superstars in the sport. And he keeps propping up his substandard fighters, refusing to put them in with his great fighters, which prevents his great fighters from ever growing their resumes and reaching their potentials as fighters and stars.

For example Keith Thurman just beat Shawn Porter. There is momentum. So if Al was smart, he would put Danny Garcia in with Errol Spence right now, and then Spence-Thurman would be ready for the fall. Then Spence wins, steals all Danny Garcia's bull**** hype, and steals Thurman's hype, and now you have a star. Then you bring Floyd back next summer to pass the torch to Spence, and you have your PPV superstar. Then you put Thurman-Garcia in the loser's bracket on the undercard, since no one will get tired of watching Garcia get KO'd. Thurman wins and the rematch with Porter is on. Whoever wins that rematch is ready for the rematch with Spence. You do the same thing at 154 with all your guys, and by the end of it let's say JRoc comes out on top, now you have a super fight at 154 Spence vs JRoc after both cleaned out their divisions, which is another way you build superstars, but Haymon never lets that happen either because for a division to be cleaned out, that means everyone in the division has to be beaten except for one guy, and Haymon prefers to keep all his guys unbeaten, even though none can ever separate themselves, rather than actually build stars by fighting everyone against each other one after the other and seeing who comes out on top.

That's the problem with PBC. Not what networks the fights are on. Showtime used to get a million. Now they get 500k. Their viewership has been cut in half by Al Haymon's awful promotional strategy. You can't build fan interest in any FIGHTER by only having them fight once or twice a year, and by having them only fight one interesting opponent every two-three years.

Would any of you root for your NBA team if they only played one NBA team every two years? If they only had one entertaining game every two years? What about your NFL team?

Boxing isn't any different. Maybe tuneups were necessary in the old days when they fought 10 times a year, but for boxers who only fight 1-3 times per year, there should be ZERO tuneups! If you're only offering entertainment on 1-3 nights a year, but you want a fan base, then EVERY ONE of those nights better be an elite fight.

I mean what about musicians? You think they build fan bases by giving only 1-3 concerts a year, and subpar concerts? No if you're only going to give 1-3 concerts a year, they better be absolutely spectacular, bringing out all the stops. Not tuneup concerts.

[ea22]

It has nothing to do with that. Haymon seems to think he can put fighters in with nobodies for five years and then everyone the whole world will suddenly tune in when they get one big fight. It doesn't work like that. Carl Frampton had never fought on Showtime, PBC, or in the USA. No casual fan here knew who he was. Frampton had also not faced anyone good his entire career before that fight unless you count Quigg, who U.S. fans don't know either and that fight was a dud.

Leo Santa Cruz also hasn't fought anyone good his entire career. He's had no big fights before. Nothing to bring fans in. He fought a halfway shot Abner Mares a whole year ago, so there's no momentum, but that's it.

It's simply not how you build boxing. You need to string together top fights one after the other, like how Pacquiao went from Barrera to Morales, multiple times, to Marquez, Oscar, Cotto, all in a relatively short amount of time. To get ratings for Leo Santa Cruz for example you have to do the Frampton fight as the opening, smallest fight in the beginning of a long stretch, not as the supposed big fight. So you start with Frampton, make a great fight, it helps their reputations. Then the winner fights Gary Russell, whoever wins, helps their reputations. Then they fight Rigondeaux 4 months later, then Valdez 4 months later, you get rematches to the most exciting fights every time, a couple rematches, you get Donaire in there because he's a knockout threat that's a great style fight, maybe Gamboa comes down and you have a very cool fight, and so on.

Then, after 5-6 top level, threatening fights, one after the other, with NO TUNEUPS in between, every 4-6 months, THEN you create fan interest. Then word of mouth spreads. Then you have a star. Then you have ratings.

But Haymon wont' let that happen anymore. He has pampered and babied his fighters telling them they can take zero risks, fight one relevant fight every 3-4 years, and expect to be high paid superstars in the sport. And he keeps propping up his substandard fighters, refusing to put them in with his great fighters, which prevents his great fighters from ever growing their resumes and reaching their potentials as fighters and stars.

For example Keith Thurman just beat Shawn Porter. There is momentum. So if Al was smart, he would put Danny Garcia in with Errol Spence right now, and then Spence-Thurman would be ready for the fall. Then Spence wins, steals all Danny Garcia's bull**** hype, and steals Thurman's hype, and now you have a star. Then you bring Floyd back next summer to pass the torch to Spence, and you have your PPV superstar. Then you put Thurman-Garcia in the loser's bracket on the undercard, since no one will get tired of watching Garcia get KO'd. Thurman wins and the rematch with Porter is on. Whoever wins that rematch is ready for the rematch with Spence. You do the same thing at 154 with all your guys, and by the end of it let's say JRoc comes out on top, now you have a super fight at 154 Spence vs JRoc after both cleaned out their divisions, which is another way you build superstars, but Haymon never lets that happen either because for a division to be cleaned out, that means everyone in the division has to be beaten except for one guy, and Haymon prefers to keep all his guys unbeaten, even though none can ever separate themselves, rather than actually build stars by fighting everyone against each other one after the other and seeing who comes out on top.

That's the problem with PBC. Not what networks the fights are on. Showtime used to get a million. Now they get 500k. Their viewership has been cut in half by Al Haymon's awful promotional strategy. You can't build fan interest in any FIGHTER by only having them fight once or twice a year, and by having them only fight one interesting opponent every two-three years.

Would any of you root for your NBA team if they only played one NBA team every two years? If they only had one entertaining game every two years? What about your NFL team?

Boxing isn't any different. Maybe tuneups were necessary in the old days when they fought 10 times a year, but for boxers who only fight 1-3 times per year, there should be ZERO tuneups! If you're only offering entertainment on 1-3 nights a year, but you want a fan base, then EVERY ONE of those nights better be an elite fight.

I mean what about musicians? You think they build fan bases by giving only 1-3 concerts a year, and subpar concerts? No if you're only going to give 1-3 concerts a year, they better be absolutely spectacular, bringing out all the stops. Not tuneup concerts.

Good post.

[AddiX]

Dinky dink ass promoters.

WTF did anyone think was going to happen?

Haymons plan doesn't build stars, And doesn't build ratings. Showtimes numbers been dog **** 2 years in a row.

Haymon is actually killing fighters drawing power.

Enjoy your new team Mikey Garcia!

[HeroBando]

Check out the Fnf ratings from 5 years ago

Date Main Event Viewers
1/7 Ruslan Provodnikov vs Mauricio Herrera 545,000
1/14 Peter Manfredo Jr vs Daniel Edouard 788,000
1/28 Chris Arreola vs Joey Abell 734,000
2/4 Sergio Mora vs Brian Vera 611,000
2/11 Antonin Decarie vs Shamone Alvarez 475,000
2/18 Fernando Guerrero vs Derrick Findley 603,000
3/4 Ismayl Sillakh vs Yordanis Despaigne 596,000
3/18 Brad Solomon vs Demetrius Hopkins 522,000
3/25 Erislandy Lara vs Carlos Molina 421,000
4/22 Breidis Prescott vs Bayan Jargal 706,000
5/13 Kendall Holt vs Julio Diaz 347,000
7/8 Jesus Gonzales vs Francisco Sierra 549,000
7/15 Pawel Wolak vs Delvin Rodriguez 525,000
7/22 Anthony Dirrell vs Kevin Engel 545,000

[Pain~Lucy]

To the rating experts, is this good or bad?

Pretty bad IMO, hbo meanwhile are going 1m and according to pbc fanboys its bad rating lmao

[Dreamking]

Damn their #1 fight only got 500k views....I wonder if enough promoters start failing they'll finally come together and have the best fight the best.