Was PBC a Complete Waste of Time?

[R_Walken]

Typical miserable fans

From the top of my head besides the fightsbthat someone already mentioned In less then 3 years Haymon and the fighters he's been associated with

Lamont / Garcia
Thurman / Guerrero
Broner / Porter
Charlo / Lubin
Charlo / j-rock
Degeale / Jack
Glowacki / Cleverly
Easter / Commey & Shikarov
Mares / LSC
Lara / Trout
Durrell / Degeale
Jack / Durrell
Quillen / Lee
Mares / Cuellar
Jack / Groves
Frampton / Quigg
Davis / Perdeaza
GGg/ Jacobs

These were all top fights of top 10 guys fighting each other
Plus a sh.it load of decent mid range match ups

Berto / Porter
Granados/ Broner
Khan / Algieri
Algieri/ Spence
Degeale / Bute
Garcia / Guerrero
Mitchell / Kondo

PBC probably controls over 50% in the weight divisions that matter straps (excluding the WBO )

Has it been perfect not a chance but in 3 years no other entity even comes close as far as good match ups and control of the sport.

But let's continue the negativity

[Scipio2009]

Still to early to tell, tbh

Phase 1, regardless of folks wanting to argue after the fact, was pretty darn successful. Proved that there was an audience for boxing on terrestrial TV, proved that that audience was a consistent grower over the broadcast, that viewers would tune in across multiple time slots (Saturday, Friday, Tuesday, Sunday being the strongest days, with Wednesday having some success too), and that boxing could be packaged in a way that broadcasters could get on board with (things were so successful that ESPN took the info from the PBC dates, and used that to sign Top Rank to a 360 content deal, for arguably short money, based on what Top Rank has committed to putting on so far).

Fans got a ton of fights, fighters got chances to build/rebuild their careers, and now there are a ton of matches that folks are looking forward to that weren't in flux when Floyd walked away.

The real question now is what does Phase 2 look like?; the content was shopped to basically every broadcaster, interest was gauged, and now it's down to seeing what broadcaster(s) are willing to close the deal (SpikeTV has some interest, NBC is out, CBS is rolled in with Showtime already, and ESPN doing the deal with Top Rank keeps FOX/FS1 out there).

If the FOX/FS1 deal comes to be (a handful of dates for primetime FOX, the full slate of dates on FS1, likely near 30 shows), PBC has a platform to flesh out the core idea of the effort in the first place, putting more boxing into the hands of the general public.

[N/A]

They had a decent run, but given how inactive many of their fighters have been, while getting paid pretty high given the opposition most times, has this really done anything for boxing in the long run?

Showtime is now spending more on boxing than ever before. Fox is spending more on boxing than they have in decades. PBC has grown the pie, which is what it set out to do.

If you don't think PBC has delivered any great fights, I'm not sure what you've been watching. In terms of big time US boxing, who has delivered more and better non-PPV fights than PBC?

The PBC critics conveniently ignore all of the Showtime PBC fights when trashing PBC, which doesn't make any sense. At the beginning of PBC, it was clearly stated publicly that the plan was to use network TV to give the new generation some exposure and then bring them back to Showtime as bigger stars.

But Showtime had to be willing to increase their budget to get those fighters back and that's exactly what they did.

As for how active the fighters are, you guys simply judge PBC with a double standard. You can rattle off countless Arum, Duva, De La Hoya, Deguardia, etc fighters who take long breaks and nobody bats an eye. Every single aspect of PBC is held to a totally different standard than any other boxing entity.

PBC has more world champions, more TV dates and more money being paid for those TV dates than ever before. Yet somehow it's a failure?!

[Scipio2009]

Weren't most of these fights on Showtime? I get Al Haymon works with Showtime, but Showtime was showing boxing way before PBC came into the picture.

This actually proves OP's point. If all the good fights are gonna be on Showtime, what makes PBC necessary?

Non-Showtime PBC events either showed prospects against overmatched opposition or just random fights that meant nothing to nobody.

Is PBC really fulfilling its purpose if if the best fights aren't on free T.V?

Point to one prospect vs overmatched opposition that's been put on by PBC not on Showtime/CBS. Don't take the sins of Top Rank and ESPN and put that on boxing, in general.

The FOX/FS1 shows have let the general public see Deontay Wilder fight, have helped set the stage for fights like Santa Cruz-Mares 2, and have helped bring along prospects and give veteran fighters a shot to come back, in largely competitive fights, for the most part.

PBC closed out 2017 with a quadrupleheader that featured a Luis Ortiz showcase and three fights that were basically 50/50.

They're opening up 2018 with Victor Ortiz vs Devin Alexander of FOX, with a deeply competitive fight for Caleb Plant against "Porky" Medina, with Harrison-Cota being a decently competitive fight on paper under that.

Showtime went two years between PPV events, both with Floyd, and the only other PPV event that seems likely for PPV in 2018 is Wilder-Joshua, with maybe the eventual WBC/WBA/IBF welterweight champion joining those two for possible PPVs.

Maybe one PPV a year, 20 shows on Showtime, and then maybe another 40 shows on FOX/FS1 (or some other broadcaster), with the vast majority of the fights aired featuring competitive fights.

[Tony Trick-Pony]

Showtime is now spending more on boxing than ever before. Fox is spending more on boxing than they have in decades. PBC has grown the pie, which is what it set out to do.

If you don't think PBC has delivered any great fights, I'm not sure what you've been watching. In terms of big time US boxing, who has delivered more and better non-PPV fights than PBC?

The PBC critics conveniently ignore all of the Showtime PBC fights when trashing PBC, which doesn't make any sense. At the beginning of PBC, it was clearly stated publicly that the plan was to use network TV to give the new generation some exposure and then bring them back to Showtime as bigger stars.

But Showtime had to be willing to increase their budget to get those fighters back and that's exactly what they did.

As for how active the fighters are, you guys simply judge PBC with a double standard. You can rattle off countless Arum, Duva, De La Hoya, Deguardia, etc fighters who take long breaks and nobody bats an eye. Every single aspect of PBC is held to a totally different standard than any other boxing entity.

PBC has more world champions, more TV dates and more money being paid for those TV dates than ever before. Yet somehow it's a failure?!

Well, Wilder and Stevenson have beat up one bum after another, leaving us all thinking, "When will they fight somebody real who we really wonder who the favorite is?"

**** is getting old.

[nubianpiye]

Never seen fans of a sport so desperate for a company providing free content to fail �� is laughable people have said since pbc started that it was going under the money was gone etc. And yet they have another year of content planned, why can't gabs just get behind free content I support golden boy top rank and pbc to provide free boxing content we don't have to pick sides grow up

[Prince Madison]

Haymons grand experiment failed.

[iamboxing]

I'd rather watch fuzzy 360p classic fights on YouTube than the dreck they put out on PBC. But it's free? So is aids.

[MurkaMan]

Thurman vs Porter
Thurman vs Garcia
Spence vs Brook
Broner vs Garcia
Jacobs vs Quillen
Santa Cruz vs Jackel x 2

What fights has hbo had that are better that were non ppv?

Yea but those fights have been spread out too far. Most of Haymon's fighters are inactive, sitting on the shelf. He should've had big name fights every other week at the least. Everyone vanished. A few yrs back, when he was with golden boy, it was fights every damn saturday, and big names.

Now on the schedule, we got all these random mexicans. None of them are names. And the names are all fighting "stay busy" fights.

[killakali]

No one put on better fights than PBC last year.

its a shame they pulled Eleider Alvarez away from Gvozdyk and ruined a competitive fight. That would have been good for SHO or ESPN