Err With the exception of Tony Dosh v Wlad which should be the benchmark for a PPV fight, I can only remember a few mediocre fights on PPV with plenty of stonkers as follows: Tony Dosh v Charles Martin/Breazeale/Molina/Whyte - one sided pony Tony Dosh v Takam - BORING Tony Dosh v Paint Dry Parker - BORING Bellew v Crippled Toe (x2) - PPV Mugths double penetration Fraud v Conman McGregor - PPV Mugths totally conned Brook v Gavin - so exciting with uncertain outcome until fight confirmed Hughie Fury v Paint Dry Parker - wake me up please when it is finished type of fight Frampton v Quigg - boring Haye v Wlad - boring Fury v Wlad - the worst ever Would be interesting if we could get a list of PPVs over the past 10 years and give a rating of 1-10 for the headline fight.
I never knew the Cleverly fight was PPV. TBF though Bellew the "PPV star" is all off the Haye run in and run up.
Bellew <insert usual love him or hate him caveat> has done a good job over the years in getting his name out there. Press conference confrontations, soccer am, creed, etc. He seems to get how to promote and sell his brand in the social media age. Regardless of whether he is or isn’t a “star”, he has always carried himself with the air and demeanour of someone who genuinely believes he is. That will be enough to convince some people, and the people it pisses off are not that important commercially. It’s how he got the first Cleverly fight all those years ago, despite a pretty thin resume coming in. He talked up a rivalry that his performances in the ring didn’t really justify, and enough people bought it (figuratively as it wasn’t PPV). The numbers seem pretty decent for Bellew-Usyk. It had the “feel” of a big fight coming in; not necessarily water-cooler stuff, but enough casuals we’re talking about it to show that it had reached the target market.
Spot on. I'm really surprised at the numbers quoted, but I think your right, Bellew broke through in the tail end of his career through some hard work on the media front.
Can’t say I watched it all but the bits I did see this was truly horrific. Some highlights: Buglioni v Meng - Meng was bashing him up throughout, aside from round 3 where Frank walked forward more and nicked the round through activity. Meng beat him up in 4 but that didn’t fit the narrative, especially when the fight was stopped on a cut. Firstly the main com (Andy Scott possibly) kept saying the fight was going to the cards even though it was a punch that opened it up. Then he realised and was quick to explain his thought process - no real issue there.But even through the fight, there was no credit given to Meng. He is at least a couple of levels above Buglioni but it was never mentioned. Afterwards Froch kept on about the magnificent round 3 for Frank that never happened. Ustinov v Hunter - where to start. Froch said that Hunter was looking to pull off an ‘upset’ and clearly had no idea about either fighter. Hunter was 1/5 best price with the bookies FYI. His opinion was purely formed because Hunter was a late replacement and Ustinov is huge. He had no idea about the Bakole win or probably who Bakole is. Adam Smith kept repeating himself that Hunter was a ‘great addition to the heavyweight division’. Then later Froch was wittering about how Hunter would fair v Chisora or Whyte. Smith said he liked the fight vs Takam. All of a sudden it starts to become evident this fight has already been made, mainly because Rakham said he was signed to fight on 22nd after the fight. Yet Hearn pretended nothing was sorted at all afterwards. 100% the fight is signed and Smith f*cked up on coms letting it slip. Just dreadful stuff and I only watched 30% of the thing.
Froch had time to talk about how he was getting on at golf which tells you everything you need to know about the standard of the card.