Schaffers $50 mill Tournament

[Eff Pandas]

Having a lot of money and being willing to throw it in a black hole with little to no chance of return or profit are two different things.

If this thing is up and running and they have fighters signed and TV in place, why haven't they announced it.

I think it's dead in the water. Time will tell.

They announced the divisions today. 200lbs & 168lbs. They are taking applicants next week. And they'll be announcing who's in in July in some sorta TV show where the top 4 guys in each division pick their first opponent & lock up the brackets.

They've had the money commitment from the start so this was going to happen. I actually believe they have the money for 3 years matter of fact so we should have 3 years of this worse case unless the first one is a complete disaster somehow which I'd be surprised by with Schaefer's previous success along with Sauerland's experience with the Super Six.

[-Kev-]

Having a lot of money and being willing to throw it in a black hole with little to no chance of return or profit are two different things.

If this thing is up and running and they have fighters signed and TV in place, why haven't they announced it.

I think it's dead in the water. Time will tell.

Dead in the water? The news was broken like 2 months ago. This takes time. The Super 6 news wasn't announced and then started a month later. It takes time.

They have the backing to do it, read the article, they just need the fighters. It was first WW, then they didn't see a need for that because the WW's are fighting eachother already. So then the next candidates were 154, 168, and Cruiser. Getting money is the first thing, they did that, now they need fighters to commit. It's not "dead in the water" lol. And by the way Schaefer was approached to do this, it's like he asked for the money. In the article he said he was skeptical until he saw who was financially backing this tournament, some big Swiss companies and then he accepted the role.

[-Kev-]

They announced the divisions today. 200lbs & 168lbs. They are taking applicants next week. And they'll be announcing who's in in July in some sorta TV show where the top 4 guys in each division pick their first opponent & lock up the brackets.

They've had the money commitment from the start so this was going to happen. I actually believe they have the money for 3 years matter of fact so we should have 3 years of this worse case unless the first one is a complete disaster somehow which I'd be surprised by with Schaefer's previous success along with Sauerland's experience with the Super Six.

I thought about every other weight class, and these two are probably the best picks. The other popular weight classes, 130, 147, 160 I think enough fighters are fighting each other there that a tourney isn't needed. Maybe 154 would've been a good pick too, to force fights like Lara vs Andrade.

[Scipio2009]

LMFAO.

A+ trolling. Holy f#ck man this is post of the year so far I think.

Sh^t man I bet if you gave some of these cats $1M for the first fight in the tournament half of the winners would f#cking retire on principle.

Why would anyone get $1m in the first fight of this hypothetical tournament? No bantamweight fighter is fighting for major money (Yamanaka is likely the biggest draw of the group, and he fights out of 8k-10k seat venues in Japan).

$1m and the trophy to the winner, the fighters in the finals split $1m, the four fighters in the semifinals split $1m, the eight fighters in the quarterfinals split $1m, and then each fighter in the first round gets $100,000.

Finance the entire event with less than $6m in purposes, with the hope that whomever emerges with all of the belts can be seen as a somewhat bankable fighter going forward.

It still calls for a good amount of money, but it's not $50m

[AddiX]

When this was announced I said this was nothing but a publicity stunt with absolutely no actual action behind it, and Dan Rafael aware to me it was legit.

The entire premise seems impossible, we all saw how much a pain in the ass the super 6 was, imagine this nonsense.

[asgarth]

So with the divisions established. How are the chances that the top guys will participate?
Does anyone at 168 and 200 earns 1mio dollar purses already?

Last I know DeGale earned 700k. Ramirez earned 200k in his last fight. Usyk earned 75k against Mchunu.
So I do think the tournament money is on average higher than what these guys are used to.

200: Usyk, Briedies, Huck, Glowacki, Gassiev, Lebedev, Makabu, Cunningham, Vlasov, Dorticos, Winner of Wlodarczyk/Gevor, Winner of Durodola/Kudryashov, Mchunu, Rakhiev (lol) and two prospects.

168: Ramirez, Groves, DeGale, Abraham, Smith, Dirrell, Dirrell, Zeuge, Yildrim, Hart, Love, Fielding, Winner Benavidez/Medina, Kessler, Eubank Jr (?)

[Eff Pandas]

Why would anyone get $1m in the first fight of this hypothetical tournament? No bantamweight fighter is fighting for major money (Yamanaka is likely the biggest draw of the group, and he fights out of 8k-10k seat venues in Japan).

$1m and the trophy to the winner, the fighters in the finals split $1m, the four fighters in the semifinals split $1m, the eight fighters in the quarterfinals split $1m, and then each fighter in the first round gets $100,000.

Finance the entire event with less than $6m in purposes, with the hope that whomever emerges with all of the belts can be seen as a somewhat bankable fighter going forward.

It still calls for a good amount of money, but it's not $50m

WBSS is working on a $50M budget. Well I should say they have a $50M prize pool.

But still f#cking with the smaller divisions is a lost cause with mainstream sports. There is lil money there & just as lil fan interest globally. Sure there are guys that catch fire I was a huge fan of Ricardo Lopez & Carbajal back in the day & some Asian countries & other places give these fighters more attention, but largely there is lil regard for the "lil guys" of boxing. That's why those divisions rarely even have a unification fight. No one cares who's the best lil champ.

[Eff Pandas]

When this was announced I said this was nothing but a publicity stunt with absolutely no actual action behind it, and Dan Rafael aware to me it was legit.

The entire premise seems impossible, we all saw how much a pain in the ass the super 6 was, imagine this nonsense.

No clue what seems impossible. Whats impossible about it?

Seems like the biggest two problems with this is getting notable names & bigger promoters to sign off on this or be allowed to co-promote these individual cards. And #2 the reality that boxing is a tough sport & its very possible that a guy who's won a fight or two could be injured & not be able to fight in the final in May & kinda f#ck up the importance of the tournament. In that way I wish they didn't have such hard dates for the tournament to run (Sept thru May)& I kinda feel like they might bend on that in the future regardless of anything they might be saying now cuz it'd be better for the tournament & ratings/ppv (if they go the ppv route) if they wait a month or two for a guy to heal vs pull some random guy to use as a sub that fans might have lil care about.

[Jsmooth9876]

If they don't get Usyk and The kid Abel trains then fail at 200. And at 168 if No Degale,Ramirez and maybe Eubank Jr then fail..

A bunch of middle tier nobody's won't work, need some big names in this thing.

[Eff Pandas]

If they don't get Usyk and The kid Abel trains then fail at 200. And at 168 if No Degale,Ramirez and maybe Eubank Jr then fail..

A bunch of middle tier nobody's won't work, need some big names in this thing.

HBO doesn't usually let there guys go off to have random fights. So assuming Usyk's contract with HBO didn't end with his last fight I don't expect we'll see Uysk even if Uysk wants in & the WBSS wants him in.

But overall I think just with the prize pool (seemingly $25M per division & the winner supposedly making $10M+ for 3 fights) it'd have to attract some elite caliber guys from both sides. I mean how many guys in any division has the chance to make $10M for winning their next 3 fights? Not many guys so most guys should be jumping at this opportunity. And the WBSS can't having a bunch of Isaac Ekpo caliber guys in the tournament & be paying them millions per fight.

I suspect the biggest problems with names won't be WBSS accepting low caliber guys or the best fighters not being involved it'll likely be TV networks & promoters cutting a guy lose to be able to fight 1 to 3 times in this tournament.