Ward/Kovalev and the sad Reality of the State of Boxing

[1hourRun]

3. The fight will be on ppv which will limit the audience to only 150-200k

4. The fight will be in Vegas and apparently mgm already plans on buying tickets and handing them out to high rollers because they know this fight won't sell on it's own


Which means you aren't getting good seats if you decide to go.


5. Neither guy can sell unless he's in his hometown

(a.) PPV is the standard for mega fights -- whats the problem?
(b.) High Rollers/Celebrities are always front row for these types of fights ; it symbolizes the prestige and class of this event.
(c.) Vegas is the Mecca of boxing.

I dont get what you are trying to say.....this is the norm in boxing -- we got the fight ; why are you guys always complaining about something? boxing fans really annoy me.

[Deevel916]

So long as some of these no life having boxing diehards keep purchasing BS ppv's , the powers that be will continue to feed us trash fights.

I'm a huge Pac fan but I did not purchase his fights vs Algieri, Bradley III and I will not purchase his upcoming fight vs Vargas. Nobody asked for these fights. Give me what I want and I'll pay. Give me BS and I boycott.

Arum had the perfect opportunity to make Pac/Crawford but for whatever reason chose not to. That would have been a hell of a fight.

[-PBP-]

(a.) PPV is the standard for mega fights -- whats the problem?
(b.) High Rollers/Celebrities are always front row for these types of fights ; it symbolizes the prestige and class of this event.
(c.) Vegas is the Mecca of boxing.

I dont get what you are trying to say.....this is the norm in boxing -- we got the fight ; why are you guys always complaining about something? boxing fans really annoy me.

Then your standards are low. This will be the lowest selling PPV of all time between two top p4p fighters. I grew up when fights like this had the world watching. I watched Tyson/Holyfield and said "**** football" I want to box. You show this fight to a young kid, then have him watch the Super Bowl or the NBA Finals, there is no question which sports he will focus his talents on.

[The Big Dunn]

This is a fight between arguably 2 of the best 5 fighters our sport has to offer. Normally when this happens, the fight is a box office smash. Leonard/Duran, Chavez/Whitaker, Oscar/Trinidad, Mayweather/Pacquiao. Arenas are packed and millions are watching. It's a good time to celebrate boxing.

In this case, the fan interest will not match the magnitude of the fight.

1. The promoters suck and have no experience staging fights of this magnitude.

2. Neither fighter is a superstar and generate average to below average ratings on HBO.

3. The fight will be on ppv which will limit the audience to only 150-200k

4. The fight will be in Vegas and apparently mgm already plans on buying tickets and handing them out to high rollers because they know this fight won't sell on it's own



Which means you aren't getting good seats if you decide to go.

5. Neither guy can sell unless he's in his hometown


So what we have, is a rare instance, where the best fight in boxing will not be in a packed, sold out arena with millions watching worldwide. The audience will be limited to a couple hundred thousand hardcore fans and Vegas high rollers. The promotion will be an embarrassment and the fight will likely be lackluster.

Don't get me wrong, I can't wait for this fight. But unfortunately, these two great fighters will be displaying their talents in front of a limited audience and will likely see little increase in their star power.

Then lets cut the BS out. The promoters need to accept the fact that Ward is the bigger draw and having the fight in Oakland will give the fight the best chance of drawing the most fans.

HBO also needs to bite the bullet and put the fucking fight on regular HBO!

I agree with you, I'm watching anyhow but a fight of this magnitude needs to be made available to as many people as possible.

[1hourRun]

Then your standards are low. This will be the lowest selling PPV of all time between two top p4p fighters. I grew up when fights like this had the world watching. I watched Tyson/Holyfield and said "**** football" I want to box. You show this fight to a young kid, then have him watch the Super Bowl or the NBA Finals, there is no question which sports he will focus his talents on.

I see I was not born around that time -- must of been pretty cool ; so being born in this era has its advantageous I can enjoy boxing - YAY!

[MDPopescu]

Then lets cut the BS out. The promoters need to accept the fact that Ward is the bigger draw and having the fight in Oakland will give the fight the best chance of drawing the most fans.

HBO also needs to bite the bullet and put the fucking fight on regular HBO!

I agree with you, I'm watching anyhow but a fight of this magnitude needs to be made available to as many people as possible.

This is what I call "pure gold" post...

... Fight in Oakland, have Jack Reiss as ref, and have at least Morrow and Christodoulou as judges.

... and get a 75-25 purse for Ward.

... "We dare to be great".

[-PBP-]

Then lets cut the BS out. The promoters need to accept the fact that Ward is the bigger draw [and having the fight in Oakland will give the fight the best chance of drawing the most fans.

HBO also needs to bite the bullet and put the fucking fight on regular HBO!

I agree with you, I'm watching anyhow but a fight of this magnitude needs to be made available to as many people as possible.

Hit the nail on the head. But nobody will admit that. Regular HBO showed Mayweather/Corrales and Pacquiao/Barrera which allowed them to fight in front of a larger audience and take that step closer to superstardom. There is no way this fight will fill up a 20,000 seat venue like T-Mobile.

I see I was not born around that time -- must of been pretty cool ; so being born in this era has its advantageous I can enjoy boxing - YAY!

Enjoy boxing or enjoy negotiations? Because based on what Kovalev's promoter is saying, negotiations is all we may be getting.

[1hourRun]

Hit the nail on the head. But nobody will admit that. Regular HBO showed Mayweather/Corrales and Pacquiao/Barrera which allowed them to fight in front of a larger audience and take that step closer to superstardom. There is no way this fight will fill up a 20,000 seat venue like T-Mobile.



Enjoy boxing or enjoy negotiations? Because based on what Kovalev's promoter is saying, negotiations is all we may be getting.

Im not even worried. I find good fights every other month as I follow the whole sport Im not some casual. I get enjoyment of people here in this forum crying about fights not getting made when they want it...it reminds me of little children throwing fits...I understand the business side of things so I'm a peace with it...after all these men risk their lives (not you or me.)

[The Big Dunn]

Once the fans started spouting off daily, "boxing is a business" while defending ducking and cherry picking, promoters basically said "**** it, lets just take them for every penny they have while putting our names in the easiest fights possible".

This is ******ed and any of you that cosign this are fucking ******. Boxing has always been a business and any real fan knows this.

Networks have the final say regarding what they air. They want to build stars because their research tells them stars get ratings instead of great fights. So they feature their stars in easy fights and market "excitement" and knockdowns rather then competitive fights.

Posters like you began to only watch certain guys and stopped caring about competition. You got your rocks off if a guy beat up a "bigger" guy or "finished strong" and wanted to continue seeing this.

So now you get the guys you love in easy fights and you still watch, only complaining when you can't see him for free in a tough fight. The time to complain was back then.

How about you start watching boxing for boxing instead of amorphous marketing terms

[-PBP-]

Im not even worried. I find good fights every other month as I follow the whole sport Im not some casual. I get enjoyment of people here in this forum crying about fights not getting made when they want it...it reminds me of little children throwing fits...I understand the business side of things so I'm a peace with it...after all these men risk their lives (not you or me.)

Well I enjoy watching the best fight the best. I also enjoy watching prospects beat up on part-time construction workers but that gets old after a while. But everybody is different. Do you.