Comments Thread For: Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev PPV Show Barely Cracked 160K Buys

[MrRolltide91]

Rematch will probably be on regular hbo

[Jsmooth9876]

Maybe Jay-Z could throw out a tweet or make an appearance for the rematch? Lol, the dude has millions and millions of followers and fans and has his name on this company yet is nowhere to be found in the promotion of his best fighters biggest fight And the biggest fight of 2016. Main events did what they could, I heard Duva on multiple podcasts trying to promote and Ward tried his best throwing out some comments here and there but it seems none of it worked.

[mabulkhair]

The promotion of this fight was garbage because both Ward and Kovalev actually have pretty intriguing back stories. If they want to see higher PPV numbers in the rematch they need to lower the price tag.

[MantisToboggan]

Damn lol, so I guess Canelo is really the only PPV star

Pump on your breaks there speedy gonzalez. 220k aint much to brag about either ROFL

[Bigg Rigg]

Pathetic numbers but I'm not surprised. It was a good fight tho.

[HandsofIron]

GGG by himself 150k

Kovalev-Ward (Two supposed p4p fighters) 160k

pitiful

[angkag]

I don't think its this. Boxers have to be able to get people excited before the fight so they purchase tickets/PPV. Neither Ward or Kov have the charisma needed to attract casual fans prior to a fight. The ability to "sell" is in many ways the most important skill a fighter can have.

The people promoting this fight needed to make sure one of them "sold" the fight-either Kov should've been Drago/Anti American in the media pre fight or Ward should've been Ali/Floyd and been more brash.

When they announce the rematch, if both guys learn to "sell", they should do significantly more.

I like this idea. Kovalev pulling a Drago, only appearing in public flanked by two Amazonian women either side, each in military uniform (mini-skirts of course) carrying Russian flags, 'I beat all man, I beat Ward, if he dies he dies'. Get a good script writer to give him more lines and an acting coach to give him a good scowl - then let Kov have real fun with it.

Sells more tickets......

Too late for that though, everyone knows their both nice guys at heart.

(my avatar too small to read, but its the scorecard with Kovalev whited out and Drago written in - as got a feeling the judges saw it that way anyway. Golovkin and Loma will have the same problem v American fighters being Russians (as far as the judges are concerned) - we already saw it in Lisa Giampa's card vs Gary Russell))

[Greg_Valentine]

Canelo and Pacquiao are the only active fighters that can crack over 200,000 buys. Maybe cotto too. We all know no one was gonna buy a fight between a Russian guy who only hardcore boxing fans really know and an American fighter who is super religious and doesn't trash talk and is not very fan friendly in the ring. As of the moment I'm writing this today, I've seen 2 more Canelo vs Smith Billboards than I have Ward vs Kovalev. That's all you need to know about the promotion of this fight.

[Eastcoast]

Maybe Jay-Z could throw out a tweet or make an appearance for the rematch? Lol, the dude has millions and millions of followers and fans and has his name on this company yet is nowhere to be found in the promotion of his best fighters biggest fight And the biggest fight of 2016. Main events did what they could, I heard Duva on multiple podcasts trying to promote and Ward tried his best throwing out some comments here and there but it seems none of it worked.

Jay Z shouldn't have to do anything, fights sell fights. Meaning they should've been doing better fights and double headers in the lead up. They signed this fight a year ago! They had a year where Kovalev could've fought a decent fighter on the east coast like Yuneski Gonzalez and Ward fight Pascal in Oakland, then do it again - Kovalev/Chilmeba, Ward/Barrera - split site double headers instead of separate dates and no decent support bouts.

Instead it was

• Kovalev/Pascal II - nobody cared...
• Ward/Barrera - nobody cared...
• Kovalev/Chilmeba - on a Monday night and wasn't even live...
• Ward/Brand - nobody cared....

The build up was atrocious and killed any chance this fight had to build interest.

[SteveM]

I don't think its this. Boxers have to be able to get people excited before the fight so they purchase tickets/PPV. Neither Ward or Kov have the charisma needed to attract casual fans prior to a fight. The ability to "sell" is in many ways the most important skill a fighter can have.

The people promoting this fight needed to make sure one of them "sold" the fight-either Kov should've been Drago/Anti American in the media pre fight or Ward should've been Ali/Floyd and been more brash.

When they announce the rematch, if both guys learn to "sell", they should do significantly more.

In order to sell or market you need an audience. They can be Ward/Drago all they like but if nobody is listening it doesn't matter.
"Someone" needs to reconnect casual sports fans to boxing. How that is best done is another matter. It sucks for the promoters but who cares about them?
I don't care too much as long as I get to see good fights and there are enough of those around if you look hard enough. 2 more great fights coming up - Gassiev-Levdeb and Charlo-Williams. Then we have Frampton-LSC rematch in January. It's enough.