Is ESPN happy with Arum?

[ShoulderRoll]

I can't imagine that they are.

The Crawford vs Khan PPV flopped. Tyson Fury vs Schwartz had poor attendance figures.

Yet Crawford, Khan, and Fury were all paid handsomely.

How long can Top Rank continue to bleed money like this without providing a positive return of some kind to the network?

[The Big Dunn]

I think they are happy. TR can make really good fights if Bob wanted to make them or partner with other channels.

Start with Crawford/Loma-the modern day SRL/Duran. That IMO would do HUGE business but there is no way Arum would do it . You have Ramirez against the winner of the WBSS which will be a much anticipated fight. Valdez/Frampton. Bieterbiev, Teo Lopez, Navarette and some other really good fighters with great potential fights.

ESPN will eventually force Bob to make better fights if the ratings are down and the other companies put on better fights.

[Eff Pandas]

Is he doing his part for the ESPN+ app? I think thats where Bob needs to deliver the most. Granted the UFC is doing better than Bob last I heard, but is Bob doing bad with that?

I suspect Bob is cool for the duration of this 6 or 7 or whatever year long deal & if anything he's playing for his deal when this deal is up vs he could be cutoff early. And I think thats way off from being a thumbs up or thumbs down by ESPN.

[Boksfan]

Probably as happy as Showtime with Haymon loosing big money on every Wilder fight.

[paulf]

The Fury entrance and KO went absolutely viral and everywhere.

To us it's bullshit, but ESPN is probably very happy. They don't care about attendance figures or if Bob loses a few bucks of his yearly budget on a PPV, at the end of the day they're looking for content that interests viewers and so far Top Rank has delivered.

[killakali]

I can't imagine that they are.

The Crawford vs Khan PPV flopped. Tyson Fury vs Schwartz had poor attendance figures.

Yet Crawford, Khan, and Fury were all paid handsomely.

How long can Top Rank continue to bleed money like this without providing a positive return of some kind to the network?

A better question is FS1 happy with Haymon. Despite being in almost the same amount of homes as espn, they don’t even do half the ratings. How long can haymon dontiunie to bleed money like this without providing a positive return of some kind for the network?

[Biolink]

It depends to what degree they expected these losses. If the goal is just to make money I can't imagine they're happy with him.

If they just wanted a piece of the market because they have the money to invest then it's whatever. Fury and Bud looked to have flopped, but who knows maybe a phenom or an actual draw will drop out of the sky one day and they can get more subs.

[pillowfists98]

I think they are happy. TR can make really good fights if Bob wanted to make them or partner with other channels.

Start with Crawford/Loma-the modern day SRL/Duran. That IMO would do HUGE business but there is no way Arum would do it . You have Ramirez against the winner of the WBSS which will be a much anticipated fight. Valdez/Frampton. Bieterbiev, Teo Lopez, Navarette and some other really good fighters with great potential fights.

ESPN will eventually force Bob to make better fights if the ratings are down and the other companies put on better fights.

Crawford vs Lomachenko would do huge business but real boxing fans know that would be a mismatch. Just like casuals thought Mikey Garcia had a chance against Spence. Weight classes matter.
Crawford rehydrates to around 160 while Lomachenko rehydrates to around 145.

[Mammoth]

How happy can any network be with everything spread so thin?

[maguirre]

I'm sure the Fury fight attracted a lot of subscribers. It wasn't shown on regular cable. BT covered the Warrington fight, but not the Schwarz fight. So I assume many people were forced to buy ESPN+.