Kovalev is a very exciting fighter, but he's not well known because the media pays little attention to him (because he's not from the USA and because his skin is the wrong color).
Ward is not really well known either, even though he's an American. Most people who watch him don't want to see him again, because of his boring "clinch, head butt, arm clamp" style.
"Oh my... let's be honest here, Ward came in like a billygoat" - Al Bernstein during Ward-Kessler
The fight can do well (350-500 PPV) if HBO actually tries to promote it. I understand why they're luke warm on endorsing Ward but I've never understood why HBO doest assist Main Events in putting a major marketing / media team behind Kovalev.
The days of Mayweather & Pac are over, promoters and networks need to step it up to nurture the public interest in boxing's current stars.....
Neither is well known to the mainstream, neither is coming off of an impressive win, theres no trash talk/ bad blood between them, and itll be sandwiched in between the ppv fights of pacquaio and cotto. it is a very significant fight but not one that i expect to do very well in terms of ppv sales.
I think they can do 300k if they promote it right. The days of tv commercials and things of that nature are over. It needs to be promoted on social media, and digital. I think there are a lot of Russians living in the US, especially on the East Coast so they need to tap into that market in a big way. They need to promote Andre Ward too, maybe some kind of one off special tv programme on his story and what he has done on main stream tv close to the fight.
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