Comments Thread For: Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev PPV Show Barely Cracked 160K Buys

[TexasCowBoy]

Serious point in there - and a good one. Boxing needs to reconnect with the casual fan - thats the only way to turn people from casual fans to lifelong ones. I didn't grow up with the PPV dynamic, the fights were on tv, so I got to see them all and become a diehard. If I had grown up with the PPV dynamic, I wouldn't have had the money to buy them, and not sure how deeply I would have got into boxing without seeing the greats hit the screen week in week out (as it seemed back then).

These days I feel its hard sometimes staying a boxing fan, and it shouldn't feel hard, so boxing seems to be slowly killing itself. Supposed top guys only fighting once a year. protecting zeros so not fighting other top guys, mismatches (always had those, but for example Ali would have a fight and be back in the ring 7 weeks later sometimes, still more fights against top guys than we get these days).

The catch-weight bs (thanks for starting that Sugar Ray..it didn't help), the damage Mayweather did, back-to-back PPV disappointments, the Danny Garcia's cherry picking their way to paydays, Ward's lack of humility in taking such a contentious win, Saunders holding a belt hostage, Jacobs making GGG go inactive as GGG has no choice it being a mandatory etc, its tough being a diehard fan, if you are a casual, its easy to turn away from.

The market has spoken and you summed it up .....one way to fix it is making 15 rd.title.fights and the judging needs to improve because two fights have been tainted this year.....choclate vs cuadras (chocolate looked like he got the crap beat out of him...his face was effd up) and kovalev vs ward (ward was on survival mode and never looked like he wanted to knockout Kovalev....ward.was.just content to go the distance and be Son Of Bias Judges)

[fightfanjoe]

Deveel no way. The biggest PPV star in UFC wont even do 2 mil. If Floyd came back and fought the GGG/Canelo winner it would exceed that amount with ease.

Boxers need to learn how to sell. Kov, instead of whining, needs to become a full on Drago/Ivan Koloff level Russian heel. Then Ward can play off that as the bragging American hero. Do something that makes espn and foxsports pay attention.

If boxers sell fights like UFC guys the sport will be ok.

I agree. However, it seems like some of these guys (Ward included - who I am a huge fan of) think that they are above the WWE-style antics. But at the end of the day, its the promoters' faults. They didn't build it up; they didn't do nearly enough to reach out to the casuals that make up ppv buys. Being a great fighter/boxer will never be enough to gain ppv popularity.

[MrRolltide91]

Who expected this to do well? Yeah we were all excited to see such a 50-50 fight from two elite, undefeated fighters, but nobody knows these guys outside of serious fight fans.

Yep........

[NEETzsche]

The market has spoken and you summed it up .....one way to fix it is making 15 rd.title.fights and the judging needs to improve because two fights have been tainted this year.....choclate vs cuadras (chocolate looked like he got the crap beat out of him...his face was effd up) and kovalev vs ward (ward was on survival mode and never looked like he wanted to knockout Kovalev....ward.was.just content to go the distance and be Son Of Bias Judges)

You realise that returning to 15 rounds would actually slow down the pace of the average fight?

[MOMENTO MORI]

previous failures of Kov's and Ward's fights only set their eventual matchup for failure. No one cared about Ward and Kovalev then and they didn't care now. Gotta somehow figure out a way to steal the casuals from mma.

[Boxing Logic]

Ward fans just will never get it, but most boxing fans have gotten fed up with spending money to watch the house fighter be allowed to hold and cheat all night. People want to pay their money for a true, fair boxing match, where the fighters have to exchange fists to win. Watching guys wrestle and walk each other across the ring for 30 seconds at a time while the referee does nothing is incredibly, incredibly boring.

They need to start officiating the sport properly. People don't get just how much action we are missing with the way the refs let hometown fighters do anything. The talent is there for exciting fights if the refs would just officiate the fight in ways that allow for actual action and exchanges to take place!

START REFEREEING FIGHTS FAIRLY, BY THE RULE BOOK, AND THE SPORT CAN STILL THRIVE.

[wrecksracer]

The PPV model for boxing is dead. The price point is too high, especially for guys that casual fans have barely heard of. The idea of creating a star who will do over 1 million buys regardless of the opponent is pretty much gone. Canelo v GGG might do it....but other than that? We see the numbers that Crawford v Postol and Ward v Kovalev are getting. Nobody wants to pay $70 for it.

[Boxing Logic]

1.6 is pretty weak considering how many people are jacking off all over Mcgregor. I constantly hear about or see him. Would have expected well over 2 million for how "huge" of a star he is

He is getting 1.6 every few months though. He is pulling in more PPV buys per year than Floyd did except for the years of the Canelo fight or Pacquiao fight.

[MrRolltide91]

main events jsut doesn't have the budget. kathy duva is on record saying that she's budgeted 5000 grand for marketing for kovalev's fights in the past.

RN is mostly to blame for letting their guy rake them over the coals . he did it for tuneups as well. they're looking to make an investment in andre ward, and they thnink they have the msucle to turn him into the next PPV star [the next floyd mayweather.]


floyd mayweather was a perfect storm of marketing. he played a villain role extremely well. in his prime it was tough to put a glove on him. ward's just an *******, he's not villain. you can put a glove on him, he'll just hold your other glove so you can't do damage, and if he gets hit he'll weather a storm and find another way to beat you.

floyd would just outclass peope with his boxing, and it was pleasing on the eyes. a casual fan could see the big swing and misses that floyd would elicit from his opponents, or the picture perfect counters. ward does things on the inside and with turning and holding that make him a top shelf operator, but it's not nearly the eye pleasing style that floyd had.



people elect big fighters. you've got to have "it" to sell to casual fans. and casual fans decide what "it" is!

floyd was a villain. people hated him and they couldnt' do a damn thing about it. he made people jealous. manny was an underdog. here's this tiny little asian guy with a knockout punch beating up welterweights. people were drawn to the novelty. oscar was just bloody good looking and had a left hook for the history book. ali divided an entire country, and was a paragon of the racial and SES clash of the civil rights era and the decade or so that followed it. mike tyson acted like the guy in a back alley that you wish you never saw! and you had his style, and his fall from grace, to bolster that idea.

true, crossover, bonafide stars are elected. they are not produced. ward's not going to crossover and become a star unless he can do something in the ring to make him a more palatable commodity to the casual fan.

Good points..

[Illmatic94]

these numbers are horrendous man. every successful PPV must draw in the casuals. i guess they weren't interested in the real life drago/creed matchup. .gotta go back to the drawing board. all PPVs afrer floyd/pac have underperformed..that fight was the death blow to the PPV platform, casuals were disgusted at the event itself and the aftermath of excuses, a $400,000,000 dud..the aftershocks are still being felt. .the last hope is ggg vs canelo, a knockout artist vs a fan friendly marketable mexican star, if that sht bombs then it's time to scrap PPV and just keep all fights on regular t.v.