Hearn really has treated Kell very badly....

Spot on

 

Moooo!

 

Just watching the Gallagher interview.

What an idiot. How the fcuk can you make a comparison between a sky Saturday night fight show and PL football.

 

Dana talks tough to his fighters as he's the be all and end all at the biggest show in town. Sure there are other promotions but he knows he's the Vince McMahon of MMA. That makes him a powerful person to cross as far as your career goes but as an actual tough guy? Methinks not.

 

100% and Hearn can open his mouth and everyone is putty in his hands. But the real answer to the riddle is this - if Brook had not 'turned his back on Hearn' and made this fight himself where would he be at 34 years old in COVID period? Fighting Carson Jones in a trilogy?! Hearn has had numerous chances to try and get fights with Liam Smith, Khan, any top American for Brook that last few years. He can't get it done for one reason or another. My issues isn't with Hearn its with Sky. They should be buying this fight for their viewers, its not a PPV but they managed to get Loma-Crolla on at 4am on regular Sky. Eddie has basically blocked it because he didn't earn a crust out of it and Sky have stood back and let him, with their money!

 

Remember when Hearns made Joshua turn down 50 million to fight Wilder even tho the money was confirmed by multiple parties? And instead had him get KO'd by fat boy Ruiz for a fraction of that purse. Eddie wants to make money simple as.

 

Joshua earned 25 million for the first Ruiz fight and 85 million for the rematch in Saudi Arabia.

So $110 million in purses combined for 2019, VS a speculative 50 million which was never formally guaranteed and was subject to him signing a dubious contract which was basically a blank page.

Yeah I'm sure AJ feels really let down by Eddie Hearn

 

How much did Arum want?

 

Not been disclosed but I doubt Premier Sports are paying figures that are out of Sky's reach. Hearn didn't want to make it because he wasn't earning out of it, which makes it ridiculous the Sky have got themselves in this position.

 

Note that they apparently asked Sky to make it PPV, which suggests they've put a high value on it. Obviously that wasn't going to happen with three PPV's already scheduled. Sky would've been undermining their own expensively laid plans by introducing another PPV into a saturated market. Cutting the same cake 4 ways rather than 3 and giving some of the share to top rank. Commercial non starter.

So the second option is acquiring the rights for a non box office treat for the subscribers. Sky already have a large number of UK boxing fans subscribing. So the question then becomes how many new subscriptions do you think Kell would sell? I think the answer to that question is very few and the proof can be found in the fight finally finding a home on Premier Sports, a relative newcomer with an acquisition budget and not many boxing fans subscribed.

It's really simple. Kell is likely to get his arse served to him way into the early hours of the morning. He can't win on the cards even if he makes the final bell. He's unlikely to fight in front of a big crowd again so there's not much upside to signing him for a series of fights, as there was for Crolla.

If this was a serious fight he'd be paying his trainer, he'd have taken the warm up fights seriously, he'd have been working with a promoter to build and maintain interest. Instead he's taken a call from Bob Arum who needs to get 'names' to fight Bud and spotted a now utterly shot fighter that once beat Porter and so he's figured beating him in a warm up will help him pressure PBC into getting Bud a decent fight. Sky aren't mugs enough to pay for the privelege and neither is Matchroom.

 

But how much are Premier Sports paying for it - a few hundred thousand? Absolute peanuts, probably about the same amount Hearn has spent on any number of his absolutely dreadful cards. If Sky weren't in a bind with Hearn they would have bought this but Hearn didn't want to do business with Brook because he's not getting a cut. Brook is a household name on Sky, he's headlined as many as 20 shows on Sky, something Crolla couldn't get neat.

As for Crolla - are you having a laugh?!He was an even bigger underdog than Brook and he basically never fought again. Sky/Hearn bought the fight because he was in a promotional deal with Crolla. Do the maths. Ultimately Brook was able to cut a better deal to land a better fight for himself with Arum, than Hearn. Incredible that boxing fans come out to bat for the promoter who has basically made it more difficult to watch better quality fights and instead churn out cr*p to help their own balance sheet. Remember Hearn said he wouldn't pay the asking fee for Lopez-Loma out of his budget. Instead we got Ritson and Buatsi......

As for Brook fight itself, I'm more than happy to come back on here the day after the fight. Brook has been training very hard for months for the fight and he'll put in a really good account I have no doubt. Even Ingle has said as much (after the split) that the weight wouldn't be an issue given it has plagued him for years, due to ill-discipline.

 

Seeing as we're guessing figures. Roughly how many new subscriptions would this fight generate? As that's the figure that determines what this fight is worth to Sky.

 

No it's not, sky had advertisements also. Retaining customers and advertisements are just as valuable as new customers. Do you think Ritson Vs Vazquez drives sky subscriptions?

 

I thought of mentioning retention and you're correct that advertising is another revenue stream. So sure, go ahead, take those into account as well. Minus of course the costs of sending a crew out there and whatever promotion resources they throw at it.

Just how many people would be watching this at 4am?

 

my argument entirely, point is if Premier Sports are paying it, it’s affordable for Sky. Hearn doesn’t want to buy it because he won’t make a bean out of it and somehow Sky have given him control of their budget!