Comments Thread For: Golden Boy Promotions, ESPN Announce Multi-Year TV Deal

[Scipio2009]

Agreed. Friday night fights was THE prospect builder.

Was it really? I don't have any of the info available, but I'm fairly certain that ShoBox helped launch a ton of prospects, and I can't recall all that many fighters that became champions/title challengers/contender for FNF.

[youbeight]

Was it really? I don't have any of the info available, but I'm fairly certain that ShoBox helped launch a ton of prospects, and I can't recall all that many fighters that became champions/title challengers/contender for FNF.

i mean....willie monroe lol

[Scipio2009]

Did I miss something in the article? I don't remember any mention of a time buy like PBC did.

The shows are being paid for/sponsored by Tecate, with no mention of ESPN paying much of anything; people are extrapolating that that must mean that the structure parallels Haymon's structure, with Tecate acting as Oscar's financier.

[Scipio2009]

of course that allows Golden Boy to make the deal but if ESPN was happy with their current boxing provider, PBC, why would they? That's the story here not that Golden Boy wants to work with ESPN but that ESPN clearly ain't too happy with PBC and going to their rivals to fill the monthly cards PBC can't.

... Golden Boy is basically being offered a test-run at being the new Friday Night Fights (with the money associated with that accordingly); Haymon was given the space to test his idea out on the main ESPN channel, with ESPN assets pushing the fights.

With the Haymon deal coming down to this summer series to see if a deal for ESPN is there, ESPN is simply falling back to the lower profile that they had for boxing (though with every show on ESPN Deportes, and most where FNF used to be) before Haymon, with the eyes on Oscar seeing if he can deliver said fights.

If Oscar can't deliver a FNF-type show, ESPN likely moves onto the next promoter (or simply purchase shows as they're being proposed, as was the seeming model for FNF).

[Mitchell Kane]

I doubt that the honeymoon lasts long; folks will remember, in short order, why the audience for Friday Night Fights ended up being what it was.

It will certainly be interesting to watch the ratings.

FNF didn't always have bad ratings...it used to do very strong ratings.

It's too early to predict how the GBP ratings will do, we don't know what sponsors are on board or what the budget will be.

But I do think there's a chance that these shows will do better than where FNF ended up, even if there isn't much of an uptick budget.

That's because I think GBP brings some consistency as the sole promoter and they're a bigger promoter than some of the ones doing the FNF shows so they bring more to the table.

Furthermore, they do many of theirs shows in the southwest, primarily in So Cal...which is probably better market to promote their shows than where some of the FNF shows were promoted.

Also, GBP has a roster that is full of Mexican/Hispanic fighters...which is a reliable audience for boxing.

Given these factors, I think there's a chance these GBP do positive ratings.

But it's too early to tell....we don't know what budget these shows have and what kind of match-making these shows will have, etc.

[Scipio2009]

I bet Jason Quigley will grow on that network platform!! Also Frankie Gomez against a Top Ten Welterweight is also in the plans 😀😀😀👊👊💯

What top 10 welterweight, when 7 of the top ten guys are with/affiliated with Haymon? lol

[Scipio2009]

The truth is boxing is not big enough to be on the big boy espn on Saturday night prime time not without somebody losing money. The ratings don't justify it and to get good enough fighters you have to spend to much so the event loses money. Boxing wasn't on espn before pbc for a reason. And pbc paid stupid money to get it there in the first place. This is for prospect level fighters at Golden boy. Espn would never give up those times slots on that network for prospects. Even when they produced their own fights they weren't on espn. I'm not pretending the sport is bigger then what it is. As for espn already paid so they just give another promoter free air time that's not how it works I'm sure pbc contract doesn't allow something like that in the first place.

My point is simply if pbc was giving espn boxing content like they promised they wouldn't need to make a deal with another promoter for boxing content. They would be satisfied or would go directly to pbc for fights on espn2. Why didn't they?

... lol. So, flying blind (big time boxing hadn't been regularly off of premium TV since the 1980s), PBC started their project with an initial blitz, scaled back things with what the numbers showed them in Year 2, and are now set for a summer series on ESPN (during the only dead part in ESPN's annual schedule anyway) in Year 3, yet you're still talking ****?

Oscar De La Hoya is likely, simply following along with what he was doing with Golden Boy Live, to continue to put on **** blowout matchups for his prospects, and folks like you are going to guzzle on the 500:1 fights, lol

[WarVeteranO01]

Was it really? I don't have any of the info available, but I'm fairly certain that ShoBox helped launch a ton of prospects, and I can't recall all that many fighters that became champions/title challengers/contender for FNF.

Wasnt Ruslan & Mauricio Herrera FNF fighters? Javier Fortuna was too. Espn also has held world title fights on fnf. Last 1 i think was peterson vs holt. Espn not a bad place for guys to come up. Its national tv

[Scipio2009]

i mean....willie monroe lol

Monroe and Chris Algieri are about all I can come up with, tbh. Friday Night Fights, for basically the last 5 years or so of it's existence, seemed to largely be used to put a prospect on TV, in a fight that would possible draw the attention of HBO (with the hope of getting put in as an opponent in a decent fight, or given a shot on the undercard of some BAD showcase).

[Scipio2009]

It will certainly be interesting to watch the ratings.

FNF didn't always have bad ratings...it used to do very strong ratings.

It's too early to predict how the GBP ratings will do, we don't know what sponsors are on board or what the budget will be.

But I do think there's a chance that these shows will do better than where FNF ended up, even if there isn't much of an uptick budget.

That's because I think GBP brings some consistency as the sole promoter and they're a bigger promoter than some of the ones doing the FNF shows so they bring more to the table.

Furthermore, they do many of theirs shows in the southwest, primarily in So Cal...which is probably better market to promote their shows than where some of the FNF shows were promoted.

Also, GBP has a roster that is full of Mexican/Hispanic fighters...which is a reliable audience for boxing.

Given these factors, I think there's a chance these GBP do positive ratings.

But it's too early to tell....we don't know what budget these shows have and what kind of match-making these shows will have, etc.

I get the points that you're making, but I sincerely doubt that Oscar De La Hoya, even given all of the advantages that you've mentioned, putting out competitive enough fights to hold anyone's interest.

Oscar De La Hoya has been running his shop, on his own, for two years at this point, and he's yet to deliver a night of fights worth watching (Alvarez having control of his own events skews things). I don's see that changing, but hopefully Oscar surprises me