How the Kovalev deal to fight on ESPN was made

[Eff Pandas]

Hold up, Thurman aint a mandatory. Hes still WBA Champion. Hes gunna have his own mandatory to deal with. Never got made a champion in recess either.

No he gots a get a title shot for free card for the WBC title. WBC guy talked about it a week or two ago. There's a story here talking about it. And Thurman was in a interview last week saying he was going to use it after his comeback fight.

[Motorcity Cobra]

Kenny is unhappy Mikey is in line for a PPV against Spence, when Shawn has a far better resume at Welterweight than Mikey.

Once again you're bringing up something recent. This narrative has been pushed about for years. Secondly I heard that interview. He was not mad. He was making a point. Has Espinoza or anyone from PBC/SHO dismissed that idea? Kenny was doing what he's supposed to do for his son.

[Randall Cunning]

No he gots a get a title shot for free card for the WBC title. WBC guy talked about it a week or two ago. There's a story here talking about it. And Thurman was in a interview last week saying he was going to use it after his comeback fight.

LOL, really? 147 is a joke of a division. 2+ year PBC wall put in front of 3 of the titles. Theres a ton of interesting guys, I cant spell, that I wanna see in the mix and it aint gunna happen.

[Stinger1]

No he gots a get a title shot for free card for the WBC title. WBC guy talked about it a week or two ago. There's a story here talking about it. And Thurman was in a interview last week saying he was going to use it after his comeback fight.

Thurman will fight a warm up fight then mandatory before Porter surely? When was his last mandatory?

[Eff Pandas]

Thurman will fight a warm up fight then mandatory before Porter surely? When was his last mandatory?

Yea thats what he said. Warm up then Porter.

Don't know, but its the WBA, they'll happily make another title vs making someone fight a mando. Think the WBA is more lax about mando's in general then the WBC & IBF for sure.

[IMDAZED]

So they can match the rematch or are you saying they can still match the fight AFTER the rematch (cuz isn't this ESPN thing a done deal or hasn't HBO already opted out on it)?

No, just the rematch but they didn’t. It’s over. In more ways than one, it seems.

[_Rexy_]

Yea thats what he said. Warm up then Porter.

Don't know, but its the WBA, they'll happily make another title vs making someone fight a mando. Think the WBA is more lax about mando's in general then the WBC & IBF for sure.

WBA doesn't care about anything except money. That's why every weightclass has 4 WBA champs.

[Motorcity Cobra]

Yea but its a pay platform too. OBVIOUSLY the numbers are gonna be different.

But he's got a history of ratings on HBO that would define his draw better than a one shot deal with DAZN or ESPN is what I'm saying. I don't believe 300k paid viewers or 1.2M free viewers would matter THAT much in a deal. Its a apples to oranges comparison to anyone who knows the business.

Another thing is how are they measuring ratings for DAZN? Is it number of subscribers? Is it number of subscribers signed up when it was announced he'd fight on DAZN? Is it number of subscribers signed up the week of his fight? BoMac said when he went to negotiate Crawfords deal he was trying to get the ratings for the ESPN + fight and nobody had them and was told they couldn't measure them. With TV ratings that's public info. Fast Eddie could tell the public only 100k watched to keep the bidding low for Kovalev. And Kovalev hasn't done over a million on HBO in a while so if he can pull that from ESPN that'll show that his name still draws in the casuals

[Eff Pandas]

LOL, really? 147 is a joke of a division. 2+ year PBC wall put in front of 3 of the titles. Theres a ton of interesting guys, I cant spell, that I wanna see in the mix and it aint gunna happen.

Preaching to the choir here. But thats what EVERYONE does. Bob gots the WBO belts on lockdown. There are other sketchy alliances between promoters & titles in the past or currently I'm sure we could bring up.

I definitely wish boxers could just be moved up the ladder as they win fights so the cream would always rise to the top no matter who they are or aren't promoted by. The sport would be better with better fights happening all the time + more fair & less about who you know.

[Eff Pandas]

Another thing is how are they measuring ratings for DAZN? Is it number of subscribers? Is it number of subscribers signed up when it was announced he'd fight on DAZN? Is it number of subscribers signed up the week of his fight? BoMac said when he went to negotiate Crawfords deal he was trying to get the ratings for the ESPN + fight and nobody had them and was told they couldn't measure them. With TV ratings that's public info. Fast Eddie could tell the public only 100k watched to keep the bidding low for Kovalev. And Kovalev hasn't done over a million on HBO in a while so if he can pull that from ESPN that'll show that his name still draws in the casuals

Good point here. I've heard they aren't big on letting these figures out in general with subscription services, but I can't believe they can't measure them in house some sorta way even if they aren't sharing that info.

But again my main point is one fight isn't gonna make THAT much of a difference for a guy with proven numbers on HBO for years already. And actually the point you bring up makes it so it'd be less impactful anyway cuz no one would know what Kovalev drew on DAZN more than likely.