arum dropped HBO?

[Eff Pandas]

Thurman-Garcia had a great vibe, in front of an electric audience, and ended up being a really good fight; not 50,000 people, but the crowd didn't take away from anything. Having Pacquiao out front didn't hurt either.

Let's see what Top Rank can do with Lomachenko in a 7k-seat building and Crawford in a 15k-seat building before settling in on Arum figuring out the presentation.

I'm not saying Arum has it figured out although I have no reason to believe he doesn't. He's certainly operated at a higher level for longer than all the PBC promoters so it should be no surprise he knows how to put together a better overall presentation.

But regardless of all that PBC has a high failure rate with making their biggest fights seeming like events & I like PBC, but thats just a fact. And that very well could be about them freelancing promoters & promoters not having a big enough incentive to shine as much as a promoter who's doing his on thing.

And they all won't be winners like this last one, but it was a very good start for TR's ESPN deal I think we all can agree on that much.

[Eff Pandas]

-WME paid $4b to buy the UFC
-the UFC/Fox deal ends next year
-HBO/TNT/TruTV can air the fights.
-TimeWarner, like most other channels, is always looking for content that fits the plan.

Only hangup will likely be over price; Fox got the UFC for basically $100m per year, but were cut out of the PPV revenue (details are hard to pin down, but estimates at the take would put PPV revenues generated in 2016 by the UFC at something like $500m; goosed dramatically by Conor McGregor, whose three fights generated something like $300m on PPV).

If TimeWarner can get the whole pot (cut the PPV count to 4-6, put the remaining former PPVs and FOX cards on HBO, put the Fight Night cards on TNT and TruTV, air TUF on TruTV, etc) for the right price, things work out for both sides.

I've heard MMA pundits & insiders suggest that the UFC is likely to get out of the PPV market with their next deal so HBO makes all the more sense with that being in play. If HBO picked up the UFC & had 12 PPV caliber events per year I suspect they'd be very interested in that.

[Scipio2009]

I'm not saying Arum has it figured out although I have no reason to believe he doesn't. He's certainly operated at a higher level for longer than all the PBC promoters so it should be no surprise he knows how to put together a better overall presentation.

But regardless of all that PBC has a high failure rate with making their biggest fights seeming like events & I like PBC, but thats just a fact. And that very well could be about them freelancing promoters & promoters not having a big enough incentive to shine as much as a promoter who's doing his on thing.

And they all won't be winners like this last one, but it was a very good start for TR's ESPN deal I think we all can agree on that much.

Can honestly say that I did enjoy the fight card. Having Teddy, Tim, and Joe Tessitore as the team (familiarity with each other helped things flow well, with no one really strong on each other) was good to listen to and the fights delivered.

My one concern is that hopefully Arum keeps it up; ESPN keeps the team together, and Arum continues with the competitive fights (Pacquiao-Horn stumbled into being competitive, but even the other fights, at the levels they were fought at, weren't "featured fighter wins every moment against hapless fighter").

Will be tuning in for the next one

[Eff Pandas]

Can honestly say that I did enjoy the fight card. Having Teddy, Tim, and Joe Tessitore as the team (familiarity with each other helped things flow well, with no one really strong on each other) was good to listen to and the fights delivered.

My one concern is that hopefully Arum keeps it up; ESPN keeps the team together, and Arum continues with the competitive fights (Pacquiao-Horn stumbled into being competitive, but even the other fights, at the levels they were fought at, weren't "featured fighter wins every moment against hapless fighter").

Will be tuning in for the next one

Thats true they kinda lucked into Manny vs Horn being much funner than anticipated, but I think they framed it well with all the little things before it & yea having a well put together team used to working together certainly didn't hurt.

And sh^t man I'll be watching all of them & all the PBC shows & all the other peoples shows too. I'm ultimately supporting all of them regardless if I hype a particular guy or sh^t on another guy from time to time & sometimes I might even switch those opinions up if someone is doing better or someone is doing worse.

[Scipio2009]

I've heard MMA pundits & insiders suggest that the UFC is likely to get out of the PPV market with their next deal so HBO makes all the more sense with that being in play. If HBO picked up the UFC & had 12 PPV caliber events per year I suspect they'd be very interested in that.

I don't foresee the UFC getting completely out of the PPV business, for the simple fact that they still have Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, and a few other bigger name fighters who likely command paydays that can't be covered by an HBO tv rights deal.

Still, the starpower that the UFC has coming along can't really sustain 12 PPVs a year, I don't think.

At $3m an event, you likely cover the net PPV take for every UFC PPV so far this year (likely exception of Cormier-Johnson 2)

[Scipio2009]

Thats true they kinda lucked into Manny vs Horn being much funner than anticipated, but I think they framed it well with all the little things before it & yega having a well put together team used to working together certainly didn't hurt.

And sh^t man I'll be watching all of them & all the PBC shows & all the other peoples shows too. I'm ultimately supporting all of them regardless if I hype a particular guy or sh^t on another guy from time to time & sometimes I might even switch those opinions up if someone is doing better or someone is doing worse.

Give everything a chance until they give you a reason not to give them a chance.

All I'm looking for are competitive and interesting fights; if the model devolves to so-so main event, supported by two wipeout fights under, I'll likely be tuning out.