We’re also only 10 years on from Haymon and PBC promising to do pretty much exactly the same thing Zuffa want to do, and look how that fizzled out. Appreciate the media landscape is different now. Haymon was buying airtime on all these TV channels, whereas now every channel and broadcast platform is desperate for live sports content, and will happily pay through the roof for whatever TKO are selling. But even for all the success of the UFC, its noise and casual interest comes from a handful of big-name fighters at any one time that props up the rest of the industry. Bit like boxing. And the boxing and sports landscape hasn’t changed really since PBC. People still go potty for a ‘super fight’ that goes mainstream, and those are easier to make now with the Saudi money than from Haymon’s closed shop and mystery ‘investors’. But beyond that, week in, week out, there’s just not millions of lapsed boxing fans sat there waiting to rediscover a love of the sport that White, Khan and Turki have the magic antidote for. And when the Saudis lose interest in boxing and move in to something else, or Turki falls out with White and Khan and finds a shiny new toy to spread the propaganda, is there enough money or does it all fall apart anyway? Again, bit like PBC.
Not just a mountain of money but a regime that beheads people and all sorts, you aren't just against some flash guy with money these are utterly ruthless
I returned from a business meeting overseas a few months ago , where everything you can think of was discussed. Mergers, Board of Control takeovers, buy outs of the main boxing organizations/belts, broadcaster takeovers and deals etc etc, crazy crazy things planned with nothing off the table. There will be major disruption to the boxing scene, especially for the first couple of years , how long it will last is anyone's guess as it all seems pretty chaotic at the moment.
The only Kick Boxer I've ever heard of who never turned to Boxing (Whyte, etc) is Jean Claude Van Damme. Says it all.
The 90s. That's a bit of a stretch. I was watching K-1 on Eurosport up till about 2007. There coverage was pretty damn good. Delayed coverage of the World Grand Prix Japanese and Las Vegas events but some some live coverage from world Grand Prix European events. Also I not being funny but Rico Verhoeven has drawn bigger TV numbers just in Holland alone than every UFC fighter on the planet. His fight vs Badr Hari in 2019 gained 3.5mil live television viewers. Famous Bob Sapp - Mike Tyson confrontation 2003 was shown on Eurosport. This content is protected