Wow. New $320M/Yr UFC NBC/ESPN deal. A taste of things to come for boxing?

[Steven Mccowan]

But I keep hearing ESPN is invested in boxing smh

Yeah ha. With espn putting last yrs 'fighter of the yr' on their app and showtime doing 400k viewership numbers and hbo doing nothing, it dont look very good for boxing unfortunately

[Eff Pandas]

Wasn't WWE looking at Fox?

I don't follow WWE stuff at all idk. Sure to be someone here more up on me with that.

[Eff Pandas]

Does this mean MMA gets spots on ESPN/ESPN2 while boxing goes to the streaming service?

LOL oh man I didn't even think of all that. But yea putting some fights on this ESPN+ app might be a way to steer boxing away & put the UFC in better positioning with events.

The only thing boxing can learn from this is to get their **** together. The UFC doesn't have to deal with network/promotional issues. Boxing will never get a deal like this because fighters have network deals and other fighters are signed to promoters who don't want to work with other promoters for big fights.

Boxing is a superior product and that's been proven time and time again. Haymon/PBC, Arum, Golden Boy, Matchroom, could all get together and get a network deal and put on a far better product than the UFC. But boxing continues to fight over a piece of the pie instead of baking another pie.

Ain't that the mfer truth. These dummies could start a NFL of boxing, but instead they'd rather have their lil beefs & lil fights month to month with their big fights a couple times a year when they got a prime Manny, Floyd or Canelo. When they could be doing big sh^t month after month.

[asgarth]

320 mio dollar sounds like a lot of money for a year. So to put it in relation how much is arums deal with ESPN worth and what is HBO and showtimes budget for boxing nowadays?

[RL_GMA]

Where are all the "UFC's DEAD!!" people at?

[Eff Pandas]

Ugh, really hope this isn't what they are doing with the ESPN vs NBC angle, but it wouldn't surprise me if its the plan. Won't run outta title fights or interim title fights then I bet if you multiple them by 2.

"UFC 240 will be the biggest event in our history. You've got the NBC lightweight champ fighting the ESPN lightweight champ, Brock Lesnar will defend his WWE/UFC heavyweight title and Conor McGregor is back to see if he can earn his 4th belt." - Future Dana White probably.

— Justin Golightly (@SecretMovesMMA) April 11, 2018

[Eff Pandas]

320 mio dollar sounds like a lot of money for a year. So to put it in relation how much is arums deal with ESPN worth and what is HBO and showtimes budget for boxing nowadays?

I never heard any hard numbers for Arum's ESPN deal, but from most accounts both Showtime & HBO are working with under $70M combined these days.

Where are all the "UFC's DEAD!!" people at?

LMFAO honestly thats why I love posting this & things like it here.

So many boxing fans are so dumb with UFC sh^t & they love to talk about it by saying stuff like "the UFC is dead" with sketchy or incomplete TV figures & after a injury of a major fighter like those things.

When things are going good they are no where to be found.

[Clegg]

Not sure a 165 division is a good thing due to splitting the talent. Too many divisions in boxing, this sounds like one too many for MMA.

[Scipio2009]

320 mio dollar sounds like a lot of money for a year. So to put it in relation how much is arums deal with ESPN worth and what is HBO and showtimes budget for boxing nowadays?

... It's a two-year deal, with the bump in TV rights (the original FOX deal came to $100m per year, while this rumored deal comes to $160m per year) coming from the demotion of 6 UFC PPVs to NBC and ESPN (not a dollar for dollar situation, but we're basically talking about $10m per PPV given up; back out the take and you've basically locked in 6 PPVs at 325k homes, everything else being equal).

[bigjavi973]

not really since an older floyd whooped on a younger mcgregor (who was touted as one of the top fighters in ufc)