How the Kovalev deal to fight on ESPN was made

[Chrismart]

ESPN+ ? They seem to be getting some good fights.

[Afi23]

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

Indeed, he expressed that this week. He was talking as if a Spence vs Porter would have to be a Fox/Sho PPV.

[Motorcity Cobra]

Kenny, this week on Tha Boxing Voice podcast, Kenny implied that he had a meeting with Arum scheduled this upcoming week. To me, this act in itself is not a sign of being disloyal but as any good manager (and father), Kenny will explore all the options.

I'm the one that posted that topic about Kenny on the boxing voice. I agree with you that Kenny is doing his job and acting in the best interest of his son. And this isn't a new thing. People have been saying for years that the Porter's aren't happy with Al and I've yet to see any evidence of it.

[Afi23]

I'm the one that posted that topic about Kenny on the boxing voice. I agree with you that Kenny is doing his job and acting in the best interest of his son. And this isn't a new thing. People have been saying for years that the Porter's aren't happy with Al and I've yet to see any evidence of it.

Indeed. Kenny is simply doing his due diligence here. That 45 minutes interview Kenny gave was really informative on the business side of boxing. I like how Kenny had to remind Nestor that even if Bud (along with Loma) is the crown jewel of the TR stable, Bud still can't call his shots and tell Bob who he wants to fight and when.

By the way, I'm impressed with this thread: 15 pages+ and we are all having a coherent, reasonable debate. It doesn't happen very often here.

[Afi23]

The money.

Kovalev vs Alvarez II not getting picked up by DAZN said to me maybe Hearn is bsing about the money he gots in his hands right now cuz how else does he not outbid ESPN for that fight?

Or Kathy is delusional about how much time Kov has left in this game & its better to take short money for more people seeing him with ESPN then more money for less people seeing him with DAZN. And that could be a reality cuz Kathy don't know her assh#le from a hole in the ground in this business despite making some moves any B+ troll on Boxing Scene could do with Kovalev on their roster.

This morning on a local Montreal radio, Yvon Michel confirmed your suspicions. While he didn't get into the numbers, he did mention that Hearn offered more money but Duva took ESPN's offer for the visibility.
And he added that by ESPN's reaction, the way they announced this news, it seems that they feel like Kovalev's last defeat was an accident and that he should make it back to the top of the division.

[Eff Pandas]

This morning on a local Montreal radio, Yvon Michel confirmed your suspicions. While he didn't get into the numbers, he did mention that Hearn offered more money but Duva took ESPN's offer for the visibility.
And he added that by ESPN's reaction, the way they announced this news, it seems that they feel like Kovalev's last defeat was an accident and that he should make it back to the top of the division.

Interesting.

Works out for ESPN either way so good for them. I think its a bad move by Kathy & for Kovalev doe.

I think 175 is far too competitive right now & the changing of the guard is imminent (& I'm talking about Kov's time being limited even if he wins the rematch & Stevenson being around much longer too). I think there are probably half of the top ten who could beat Kovalev right now & Alvarez isn't THAT unlikely to be able to do it again.

[lanker rom]

They are paying the same amount with far more shows than FOX. They have 30 of their own shows to put on, with 24 international cards. FOX has 10 big cards and 12 FS1 cards.

What do you mean they are not live fights? They are live fights. Warren's cards will only be afternoon cards. Heck, ESPN and ESPN+ have shown live Australia cards at like 5 am pst in the morning.

Hate to bring up the past but I dug up this quote from when Top rank first got a deal with espn.

ESPN and Top Rank declined to discuss the terms of the deal, but the amount the network will pay over four years is estimated to be less than the cost of a single “Monday Night Football” game.


That was from kevin drapers article when top rank had a 4 year deal with ESPN. one MNF show is 64 million.

How much do you think the expanded deal is worth now that u know the original deal was less than 64 million in all four years.

No fighter from frank warrens stable or TR warrants 50 million a year. Especially with MP gone!

ESPN was throwing hints at everyone by saying how "comprehensive" the deal was.

[NC Uppercut]

Told that @EddieHearn was so desperate to land the Elieder Alvarez-@KrusherKovalev fight for @DAZN_USA he summoned his powerful promoter father, Barry, to urge promoter Kathy Duva to strike a deal. She said thanks, no thanks, went with @espn.

— Lance Pugmire (@latimespugmire) September 14, 2018

//twitter.com/latimespugmire/status/1040618945575710720?s=19

Appreciate the info!

[KTFOKING]

Hate to bring up the past but I dug up this quote from when Top rank first got a deal with espn.

ESPN and Top Rank declined to discuss the terms of the deal, but the amount the network will pay over four years is estimated to be less than the cost of a single “Monday Night Football” game.


That was from kevin drapers article when top rank had a 4 year deal with ESPN. one MNF show is 64 million.

How much do you think the expanded deal is worth now that u know the original deal was less than 64 million in all four years.

No fighter from frank warrens stable or TR warrants 50 million a year. Especially with MP gone!

ESPN was throwing hints at everyone by saying how "comprehensive" the deal was.

Where did you get the $64 million mark? It is rumored ESPN pays WAY more than that per one MNF game. I think you just went off of what FOX paid for TNF? That's not how it works. That is getting rights to the games, and then the production plus highlight package and all that brings it to over a $100 million per one game.

Original deal was for 16 million per year? Sorry, that doesn't even make sense. But since they expanded? You are basically paying $8-9 million a year for Crawford's fights and then Lomachenko gets good money himself. You are paying about $3 million for international broadcasts. You don't try to bid for BJS vs Andrade two fighters not in your stable for that less of a budget. You don't go after Kovalev/Alvarez two fighters not in your stable with a limited budget.

Anyways, we keep going in circles. Believe what you want here.