Comments Thread For: Bradley: Arum Taking Big Risk By Doing Independent Pay-Per-View

[Mitchell Kane]

I imagine attracting casuals is a bit easier when you are on a major network like HBO, but then again there may be people (like myself) who are cutting cable out entirely and would like to purchase PPVs online.

I don't necessarily know if this will cost Arum but there are certainly some unknowns here. The only other PPV he offered through TR to my knowledge was Pac-Bradley III, but that was in addition to selling it on HBO and it still didn't do quite what they were hoping for.

Top Rank has done their own PPV's going back many years and they've done it with Pacquiao, Morales and others...and they've done streaming of non-televised undercard fights for their bigger fight cards, as well. It's not like this stuff is new to them.

As for the PPV numbers, the fight may not sell well, or be close to the Pacquiao PPV's of the past...but I'm sure Top Rank is prepared for that. There's a lot of international boxers on the card, including Shiming, so there will be international tv money coming in.

[BrometheusBob.]

Top Rank has done their own PPV's going back many years and they've done it with Pacquiao, Morales and others...and they've done streaming of non-televised undercard fights for their bigger fight cards, as well. It's not like this stuff is new to them.

As for the PPV numbers, the fight may not sell well, or be close to the Pacquiao PPV's of the past...but I'm sure Top Rank is prepared for that. There's a lot of international boxers on the card, including Shiming, so there will be international tv money coming in.

Did not know how many PPVs they had made before.

Fair point about Shiming. I remember him doing monster TV numbers in China on some previous cards. Don't know exactly where he fairs as a star since losing his shot at a title against Ruenrong in one the most the most one-sided title fights in recent memory tho.

Top Rank has been running independent PPVs for years, albeit with smaller Pinoy Power/Latin Fury cards. And the 24/7 type promotional material is going to be aired on major networks with a much larger viewership than HBO.

The thing is....not a whole lot of people are going to buy this fight regardless. So Arum removing HBO from the situation and spending their cut on a little promotion will likely result in a very similar PPV number.

Pacquiao diehards and boxing heads with money to spend are buying this, no one else. Regardless of who produces it.

Like I mentioned above, did not know about bold.

Also it's a good point that the money they aren't giving to HBO could now presumably be spent on their own promotional content / advertising. That still probably won't save Pacquiao-Vargas from hitting lower numbers than Pac-Bradley III but it will probably lead to success in the future as Crawford or someone else in the TR stable grows into a PPV attraction.

[brettWall]

Boxing is worldwide and it's easy to see how big the sport is in many parts of the globe. What is not clear is how much are these US-based boxing promotions get aside from the US market?

[sicko]

Sadly for him that thing is going to Flop HARD especially with a LOADED UFC 205 Card the following week. Nobody is ordering this Arum better keep the budget down here to be safe because I don't think the numbers will be pretty at all especially without having HBO backing it

[jqSide]

He already took a risk and spent his own money in the Postol/Crawford fight, which should not have been a PPV. Apparently, TR took part in distributing the fight and it broke even, according to him. So the signs are there Arum has been inching his way towards becoming HBO-independent.




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[Reloaded]

I think a lot of people are getting rid of cable completely and just watching online.

Its too expensive per fight thats the problem , make it $10-$20 and go for the masses and also do their own subscribed smooth HD streaming and people will buy , there are lots of ways to package a TR PPV bundle , maybe a $150 for a year subscription getting all TR PPVs , maybe a 3 fight bundle etc .

Just saying .

[IMDAZED]

Did not know how many PPVs they had made before.

Fair point about Shiming. I remember him doing monster TV numbers in China on some previous cards. Don't know exactly where he fairs as a star since losing his shot at a title against Ruenrong in one the most the most one-sided title fights in recent memory tho.


Like I mentioned above, did not know about bold.

Also it's a good point that the money they aren't giving to HBO could now presumably be spent on their own promotional content / advertising. That still probably won't save Pacquiao-Vargas from hitting lower numbers than Pac-Bradley III but it will probably lead to success in the future as Crawford or someone else in the TR stable grows into a PPV attraction.

Shiming didn't do monster #'s. Arum said they did but he was like 297 million viewers off.

Top Rank has done countless PPV's in the past (Latin Fury, Pinoy Power series') and they've had moderate success. The real question is, assuming Manny wins, where does he go from here?

[Shadoww702]

Ruslan won that fight! Bradley was out on his feet! Remember Ruslan had him doing back flips, but they called it a "slip."

Yup! I can't remember but he did something else which shocked the sht out of me??? I think he told Bradley to get up??? Or some sht??? Do you remember???

[ThatDude44]

I don't think it's a bad risk depending how many PPVs he needs to be on the plus side. Manny is still a name and probably has loyal fans that'll buy this. I'm sure he's not expecting 1m PPVs.