Comments Thread For: 'Sugar' Ray Leonard: Fights on Free TV 'The Solution' for Boxing

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

"Sugar" Ray Leonard began building his brand on network television even before he made his pro boxing debut. When the 1976 Summer Olympics aired on free TV from Montreal, Leonard captivated American sports fans on his way to winning a light welterweight gold medal. Six months later, CBS televised Leonard's first professional fight, a unanimous-decision win against Luis Vega in February 1977, from Baltimore.
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[JASON SHAW]

HOW DARE YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH LEONARD?? DONT YOU KNOW BOXINGS RACIST FAN BOYS HATE AL HAYMON THE BLACK HITLER..... THESE ******S LOVE MISMATCH PPV'S BY GOLDEN GIRL ****TIONS AND TOP PRANK WAYY MORE.....

[PittyPat]

The fighters all seem torn on what they really want, though – or they're just ****** and don't realise that they (along with the promoters and premium networks) have helped to create a counterproductive "have one's cake and eat it" situation.

They want exposure to large audiences in order to build a following... yet they demand PPV purse figures for every single fight, as if they're all at Mayweather or Pacquiao levels of stardom. Ain't gonna work.

[JASON SHAW]

The fighters all seem torn on what they really want, though – or they're just ****** and don't realise that they (along with the promoters and premium networks) have helped to create a counterproductive "have one's cake and eat it" situation.

They want exposure to large audiences in order to build a following... yet they demand PPV purse figures for every single fight, as if they're all at Mayweather or Pacquiao levels of stardom. Ain't gonna work.

99% OF PBC FIGHTERS ARE HAPPY FIGHTING ON FREE TV.... WHICH FIGHTERS ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??? NAME SOME NAMES

[Eff Pandas]

They want exposure to large audiences in order to build a following... yet they demand PPV purse figures for every single fight, as if they're all at Mayweather or Pacquiao levels of stardom. Ain't gonna work.

I tend to agree.

I do believe at some point paydays can be big, bigger than now & arguably bigger than most PPV paydays via free TV boxing shows, but the ratings have to get to a point where the money shows up.

There is clearly not ratings to warrant the paydays or at least it doesn't appear that way based on the details of PBC's losses over the last 2 years as we've seen from the TR & GBP lawsuit discoveries. Although to be fair I haven't seen actual balance sheets for fight card expenses versus fight card revenues, but while I think 80%+ of PBC's losses are TV time buys, infrastructure expenses & non-fight card things I have a hard time believing the fight cards have been profitable yet & therefore logically they are overpaying fighters.

[THEFRESHBRAWLER]

Haters like Steve Kim will try to convince you that none of these fights are actually free.

[boxinggod101]

If you a real boxing fan, u got to love PBC. F#ck the politics and all that bs. They giving us fights regulary on free tv.. how can u hate that? Im paying HBO monthly just for boxing and I have 1 fight a month, that s#cks...

Garcia-Thurman on free tv??? **** yeah!!!

[THEFRESHBRAWLER]

I tend to agree.

I do believe at some point paydays can be big, bigger than now & arguably bigger than most PPV paydays via free TV boxing shows, but the ratings have to get to a point where the money shows up.

There is clearly not ratings to warrant the paydays or at least it doesn't appear that way based on the details of PBC's losses over the last 2 years as we've seen from the TR & GBP lawsuit discoveries. Although to be fair I haven't seen actual balance sheets for fight card expenses versus fight card revenues, but while I think 80%+ of PBC's losses are TV time buys, infrastructure expenses & non-fight card things I have a hard time believing the fight cards have been profitable yet & therefore logically they are overpaying fighters.

What losses are you speaking of? Y'all keep talking about all these loses PBC is taking and crying about fighters purses. PBC wasn't even suppose to last a year according to nerds like Steve Kim and Reddit. They purposely put out false information to try and sabotage PBC
We should not even be concern with what Haymon is paying his fighters. Thats female gossip. From what I seen in the lawsuit it is GBP taking all the loses while PBC is winning. They only made profit on 2 cards last year. So why do y'all continue to single out PBC?
GBP sued because they knew PBC was making money.


I have a hard time believing the fight cards have been profitable yet & therefore logically they are overpaying fighters.

^^^This is all speculation and opinion. If Arum was doing this he would be smartest man on earth. They were profiting and making it hard for other promoters to profit according to the lawsuit. Even if they weren't profiting what does it matter to you as long as the fights are good. I still don't understand why y'all care about fighters getting overpaid. Sound like jealous females when y'all mention that.

[HURTFEELINGS]

NO WAY SUGAR RAY! Sure you might be one of the greatest, but your opinion hold no sway over boxing forum posters. Dont you know they hate free boxing, they hate boxers getting good pay, and especially hate promoters like they were African American Olympic boxers...Why would THEY like boxing for free? And boxers making good money, dont you know they care about, boxers being broke and fighting on cable channels against no-hopers and mismatches, do you know this guy named gggg has almost sold 98k on ppv, surely you can get mismatches like his, then they will love you. Sugar Ray youre crazy...according to posters.

[Afi23]

Speaking of the purses, Thurman and Garcia have been more than reasonable given the current boxing climate: each will get 2mil. We all know in today's age, given the magnitude of this fight, that each could have held out for more money (given today's current climate). Sure the other fighters on the card aren't getting much but something had to give!
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