Comments Thread For: Arum Explains Why Ditching HBO For ESPN Was The Right Move

[RoyJonesJrp4pno1]

Arum done the right thing by going to ESPN.

Now he needs to get some quality announcers because Smith and Atlas ****ting on the product isn't going to increase ratings.

[Scipio2009]

catch up man! Bernard hopkins confirmed on radio 1 week ago that danny is fighting on canelos undercard! Its on youtube the breakfast club interview

who is Daniel Jacobs fighting, though? Watched the same episode of the breakfast club that you did, and all Hopkins did was not talk bad about Danny (Brooklyn fighter, for an interview on NY radio, Hopkins isn't dumb) and hint at some announcement that was coming.

Fight is basically 10 weeks away at this point, and things still haven't progressed beyond that.

Unless Jacobs is already quietly in camp, or he's being set to face a complete bum, 8 weeks for a fight is likely about as short you can cut things and still be in top shape.

[Scipio2009]

Ive read from espn insiders this is not a time buy. It is going to be more of a team efgort between arum and espn. That is why i believe it has a good chance to work. And i hopd it does

Would love to see your sources, but we'll see what Arum can come up with.

Arum's m.o. for ruining deals like this (the TruTV was apparently a pay deal that TimeWarner put together for HBO's house promoter too), so not holding my breath.

[p4ptbe]

who is Daniel Jacobs fighting, though? Watched the same episode of the breakfast club that you did, and all Hopkins did was not talk bad about Danny (Brooklyn fighter, for an interview on NY radio, Hopkins isn't dumb) and hint at some announcement that was coming.

Fight is basically 10 weeks away at this point, and things still haven't progressed beyond that.

Unless Jacobs is already quietly in camp, or he's being set to face a complete bum, 8 weeks for a fight is likely about as short you can cut things and still be in top shape.

i dont care if he fights a bum! he needs a stay busy fight and david lemieux and billy hoe saunders are too chicken to fight him! so that doesnt leave many options! im hoping in a week or 2 we will find out!

[Scipio2009]

The type of money the UFC is looking for seems to be too rich for HBO imo. I read that Ari is looking for $280 (at worst; many expect this to be the floor) and $450 million annually (Fox currently pays $115 million annually).

Seems very expensive for HBO

Conor McGregor did something like 4 million PPV buys for his last three fights (Diaz, Diaz 2, Alvarez), Jon Jones is still a decent draw in his own right (500k-700k PPV buys), and there's still at least 1 GSP fight to leverage on PPV (with enough lesser PPV shows under that to tick things over).

Beyond that, the UFC has built their audience to the point that folks will travel with the UFC (if the day came where all of the UFC content was available on HBO/TNT/TruTV, there'd be a sizable audience picking up HBO to watch the UFC).

$450m is definitely an aggressive price (and a price that I doubt anyone pays for), but $280m is already an aggressive price as a floor, and HBO is one of the only platforms ready to help monetize that.

4-6 PPVs (residual kicks back to HBO), monthly cards on HBO (most of the UFC cards do less than $3m on US PPV and HBO can sustain that per show), at least quarterly shows on TNT, and then the smaller shows/show content used explicitly to get folks to tune into TruTV/Bleacher Report.

(With the way content is going, UFC would also give HBO another chit to push their streaming options into the public, beyond their original series', which already draw a ton of money).

[Scipio2009]

Jennings is just the first guy before some of the pbc fighters who are upset about fighting once a year start moving over.

Jessie Vargas is just the latest fighter to complain about his promoter. Tank davis Mickey Bey Thomas Dulorme Saul Rodriguez have all had or still have issues with Mayweather Promo. Pedraza Porter and Vanes are just some of the pbc fighters who have had issues. It's nothing new

All I'm waiting on is hearing the rumors for the names of these fighters on their way to Bob Arum.

I doubt that it happens, but let's see.

Tank is the co-main on Mayweather-McGregor, Dulorme is fighting in a tough fight on FS1, Neno just had a real tough fight not that long ago, and I've got no idea what's going on with Mickey Bey, tbh.

Porter was grumbling about the timing for his opportunity; ended up getting Thurman and Berto, even though it didn't happen when he wanted it to happen, and is apparently on the cusp of getting another big fight against Danny Garcia. Porter's not going anywhere.

Vanes was giving opportunity after opportunity to get to the top, and fell short on every opportunity; he felt he was worth another chance, Haymon couldn't deliver him another chance, the sides parted without issue, and now Vanes is hoping that Don King can deliver him another opportunity.

Pedraza was champion, didn't take certain opportunities that were brought to him to raise his profile, got beat, and is now looking to rebuild at 135lbs; if he feels that Arum can help him and his camp, so be it.

To hang your hat on some secret mass exodus from PBC to Top Rank is a bit much

[Scipio2009]

Idk how that makes things any easier for Arum.



I actually side with Floyd in all those situations. Tank SHOULD move outta Baltimore. Bey was making 4 digits with Arum & making 6 digits with Floyd. And Dulorme just had a fight a few months ago & probably needs to be smarter with his money til he starts making bigger money.

I think Arum has had more serious situations with his fighters cuz they are on the sidelines vs fighting for him. TR issues with fighters rarely seem to get worked out.



I'm not judging them yet, but I do think they got their work cut out for them based on the expectations of viewers & the stable.

And Indongo isn't realllllllly with Hearn. Hearn gots options on him & there isn't anything better than the Crawford fight for him. That said Hearn does seem like a guy who's legit of the money talks bs walks variety where you can make deals easier. The UK market demands cohabitation more then the US market. So I think that could be one place where TR does business easily with this ESPN deal.

The Nail's opponent hasn't fought in a year & I'm not even entirely sure he has a promoter.

I guess my main point is thus far they haven't really done a legit competitive fight in the eyes of most fans & there are none on tap yet so how soon do people tire of that? They did luck out in that Manny vs Horn was more competitive than expectations which is good.

Tank moving out of Baltimore is a catch-22, tbh; he shouldn't still be living where he lived (a move of his family into the suburbs/exurbs of Baltimore is likely long overdue), but he's also starting to emerge as "the fighting pride of Baltimore" (with Under Armour even putting money behind him).

With him and his coach having deep deep roots in their city, leaving out and just setting up shop in Las Vegas was likely too much of a move.

No reason why he and his coach could end up doing what guys like Andre Ward/Virgil Hunter have done (start off in their original gym, work until the pockets can handle things, and then build a new gym not all that far away from where the old gym was, but in a better area).

[Scipio2009]

Arum done the right thing by going to ESPN.

Now he needs to get some quality announcers because Smith and Atlas ****ting on the product isn't going to increase ratings.

If the product is ****, than the product is ****; on a straight-sports channel, no one is going to risk their name/reputation to shill for Top Rank, something that HBO was more than happy to do so that they could build up stories.

[Scipio2009]

i dont care if he fights a bum! he needs a stay busy fight and david lemieux and billy hoe saunders are too chicken to fight him! so that doesnt leave many options! im hoping in a week or 2 we will find out!

Daniel Jacobs vs Andy Lee, from Barclays Center, is a fight that could easily be set for September/October, and is a fight that has no ties to Golden Boy (if Showtime isn't gung-ho about Jacobs' return fight, the bout could easily end up on primetime FOX).

I simply don't see the value in Jacobs going to Canelo's undercard, especially weighing headlining his own show against being the chief support to a PPV that's not likely to top 1m PPV buys.

[Eff Pandas]

Tank moving out of Baltimore is a catch-22, tbh; he shouldn't still be living where he lived (a move of his family into the suburbs/exurbs of Baltimore is likely long overdue), but he's also starting to emerge as "the fighting pride of Baltimore" (with Under Armour even putting money behind him).

With him and his coach having deep deep roots in their city, leaving out and just setting up shop in Las Vegas was likely too much of a move.

No reason why he and his coach could end up doing what guys like Andre Ward/Virgil Hunter have done (start off in their original gym, work until the pockets can handle things, and then build a new gym not all that far away from where the old gym was, but in a better area).

Well might get shot or killed is the greater evil among those alleged catch 22's so idk if I see it as a true catch 22 (I guess they could always put RIP Tank on the UA billboard if he got killed). But yea just move to a better area works or go to some other state nearby, believe .