Comments Thread For: How Top Rank's Deal With ESPN Changes Boxing

[jbpanama]

Seriously HBO is in the worst trouble that I've seen them in since I've been following boxing. Granted they do have who is arguably the most profitable star in the sport now outside of Floyd (Canelo), but who else do they got? Ward & Kovalev? Those two were a box office bomb. Together at that. GGG is what, 36? Who the hell else do they got left?

Hey, Mike, I think U missed something..

This is about building HBO stars of the future...

[p4ptbe]

so u love pac vs horn and crawford vs indongo cuz it's free! Good to see your a fan bro!!!

i thought manny vs horn was a sloppy crap fight! Crawford vs indongo will be really good! Loma vs marriaga will also probably be good!

[p4ptbe]

exactly bro. We know u love boxing on basic cable so u are rooting hard for top rank on espn!!!!

i prefer showtime and fox sports1 these days!

[Vasyl’s dad]

to some people free boxing is bad when a black promoter does it! But when a mexican and ***ish promoter does it its awesome! For me personally anything free is good!

But how is it free when you pay a cable bill?

[PunchyPotorff]

3 pages into the comments... not a peep about how corrupt Uncle Bob is. What about the fighters? Exposure, yes. Paid well? We don't know, but I don't trust Arum one bit. All I know is, it sure seems strange how there isn't a big investigation to find out exactly what happened in the Pac/Horn fight. Same thing as Pac/Bradley I. And Arum has done this several times in the past. So, what, he throws fans a bone on ESPN, and that keeps his corruption from being found out? Sorry, I don't go for that b.s. And no, I won't be shutting up about the issue. Manipulating fight outcomes is simply wrong. No other way to put it.

[p4ptbe]

But how is it free when you pay a cable bill?

well majority of people in this country have packages that consist of NBC, FOX, CBS, ABC AND EVEN ESPN! SHOWTIME AND HBO ARE EXTRA EVEN AFTER YOU PAY FOR THOSE EXPENSIVE PACKAGES! THATS HOW I MEAN

[Mitchell Kane]

Ramirez-Hart, Valdez-tomato can, and Bradley-Ramirez are all main event matchups HBO would've passed on (Ramirez looks like he can fight, but he's still an unknown prospect outside of the Central Valley/California to boxing fans)

The only bad fight of the group is Valdez-TBA, but only because he does have an opponent yet.

[IMDAZED]

We had to see this coming. Boxing media blowing Arum while bashing PBC even though is the one that changed the game forever.

Can't wait until Fox gives PBC a big deal..

They blow anything non-Haymon related. I see the same posters here who brought out the pom poms for the GBP-ESPN deal have sure moved on quickly

In this case, there is reason for every boxing fan to be happy. Crawford-Indongo is reason enough for me. Verdejo-Flanagan is solid. The rest of the fights are ****. And get ready for a bunch of rematches since Bob can't ever play nice in the sandbox with anyone else. But I'll take the **** and the rematches on ESPN as opposed to on HBO.

As for Haymon, the critics don't matter. He's given boxing the best fights over the past couple years and I doubt that changes. Let's see what deal springs forth from this PBC venture.

[big_james10]

Going to be fun watching the same writers who hate PBC and anything Haymon related shill for boxing on HBO. I mean, it wasn't that long ago when writers were whining about how Mayweather being unhappy with the Jack-Degale descion was bad for the sport and undermined a great card, but Pac supposedly getting robbed in the eyes of millions of casual fans is good for the sport?

Amazing how boxing journalists pick and choose what they criticize and what they glorify! Floyd/Pacquiao, which sold 4.6 million PPVs hurt boxing, according to these journalists. Mayweather/McGregor, which will likely be number two in PPV sales will hurt boxing. However, Pacuquaio/Horn, which had fewer viewers on free television than Thurman/Porter and Thurman/Garcia is going to save boxing! Amazing!

[original zero]

The reason the sport is losing an audience is a lack of exposure to the masses....

That's a big part of it, but boxing also has another major problem: the entire structure makes absolutely no sense.

Imagine if the Cavs refused to play the Warriors in the finals because they didn't want to risk losing? Or were demanding options or a rematch clause?

For boxing to thrive like other sports, there has to be a league where the fighters are told who to fight and the league controls most, if not all, of the top fighters.