Folks, that's how you over marinate a fight

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Elevated his stock? He already has the biggest fight of his career signed.

Lol... Don't care if the fight is signed,, it's about PPV buyrates and Ward just had an infomercial for it and it was lame and probably didn't help at all in selling a PPv. Ward needed tonight was a highlight reel stoppage, floyd-gatti or manny-diaz. Something that can be played over and over again on espn, etc

[Motorcity Cobra]

Kovalev fought in Russia on a monday night. Ward just fought a televised sparring match. Somebody please tell me how these last two fights raised the profile for their fight?

[kiaba360]

This exact thought was running through my head all day: whether the casual fan that happens to tune-in to these interim fights are actually turned off by the performances and therefore pass on the PPV. This bout has more reason to be PPV than Crawford/Postol (or almost any other PPV match-up this year), but if we're going off the combined star power of both combatants, it probably should be on HBO WCB. This might be the most important match-up of the year in more ways than one. If this fight happens to flop, the consequences might be ugly.

[Motorcity Cobra]

This exact thought was running through my head all day: whether the casual fan that happens to tune-in to these interim fights are actually turned off by the performances and therefore pass on the PPV. This bout has more reason to be PPV than Crawford/Postol (or almost any other PPV match-up this year), but if we're going off the combined star power of both combatants, it probably should be on HBO WCB. This might be the most important match-up of the year in more ways than one. If this fight happens to flop, the consequences might be ugly.

Wow I actually agree with thread starter some how!

I have to agree that this fight lost some stream for me. Starting with "The Krusher", in his last fight he was far less Krushing than ever. Call it lack of motivation, call it fighting an awkward opponent, call it whatever, the fact is, some of that nearly mythic bone shattering power seemed fade away a bit, and the immortal Russian killer became a mere mortal with big flaws waiting to be exploited.

Ward as well, while dominating his highly overmatched opponents, failed to put either away and coasted to easy decisions victories and sure, we can say Ward isn't known for his power, he also failed to put on good shows.

It makes me worry that the most significant fight of 2016 as far as pound for pound supremacy goes, just won't live up to the hype.

With all that said, this is still the fight I'm most looking forward to this year. Granted, 2016 has been shittier than Dan Rafael's ass after an all nighter at Old Country Buffet, but the stakes are so high you can't help being pumped for this fight, stinker tune ups or not.

At this point I'll be more willing to pay for Stevenson vs Kovalev or Ward than Ward vs. Kovalev

[GoldenGloveLove]

Guess I'm in the minority, redundantly, but I pretty much got what I expected in both of their last fights and enjoyed them both on performance.

[Fetta]

It didn't. It made it even worse. Ward gets a lot of **** but tonight he deserves everything he gets. That was horrible. Ward, Roc Nation and HBO should be ashamed of themselves.

I dont know about that. I was there and im a talker (lines, rr lines, food) and everyone i spoke to were excited for Ward/Kov.

[Motorcity Cobra]

I dont know about that. I was there and im a talker (lines, rr lines, food) and everyone i spoke to were excited for Ward/Kov.

Yea. If people are at the Ward fight I'm pretty sure they're excited to watch Ward fight Kovalev...........Water is wet.

I'm talking about the build up for this fight that was supposed to be used to hype the fight. What have they done to build up excitement for this fight? Kovalev's last fight was on a Monday night so the ratings were low. Ward just put on a sparring match with a guy who shouldn't have lasted 12 rds with him. This build up didn't gain not one new fan. The only people excited for the fight are the same people who were excited when it was announced earlier this year

[-Kev-]

I'm sure in the month and week leading up to the fight every boxing fan will be excited

[Beercules]

I'm sure in the month and week leading up to the fight every boxing fan will be excited

Yeah that will probably happen.

[Holystroke3]

This fight wasn't about "marinating"