Things are looking bad, folks. All too recently PBC was scooping up all the big names, everywhere. They had endless trunks of money. They were the new UFC. It began to fizzle out a few years ago, but this year it fell off a cliff. Let's take a look at some recent results: Efe Ajagba - Was an exciting HW prospect who looked like a wrecking ball until he was recently dropped hard by a stepping stone. Starting to look like a club fighter bust; getting into wars with low level opposition. Eleider Alvarez - Huge win over Kovalev - big opportunity to throw himself into conversation of the hottest division in boxing. Got comprehensively outboxed in the rematch, extinguishing his momentum. At 35 his run in big time boxing looks to be over. Carlos Balderas - US olympian prospect with some flash. KO'd a few months ago. David Benavidez - Still undefeated, but his stock has gone down significantly in my eyes after looking all too limited while facing a very solid technician in Dirrell. Adrien Broner - Adrien Broner Marcus Browne - Beat up and roughed up by old warhorse Pascal last fall. 0 gone, and doesn't look like he has the talent to mix in with such a competitive division. Jermall Charlo - Still a good fighter, but definitely didn't have the answers for Korobov; probably lost the fight. Has a good chance to do things at 160. Jermell Charlo - Again, still a good fighter, but got his 0 snatched. Good win against Harrison, but considering how high the Charlo bros stock was two years ago, they are practically irrelevant now. Gervonta Davis - Blue chip prospect turned twitter warrior. Fat. Seems to care more about hood **** than boxing. Going the way of Broner I fear. Robert Easter Jr. - Beat up by Mikey, lost his 0. Could still challenge for titles but his hype has been snuffed. Danny Garcia - Once one of the more prominent faces of PBC, he is now irrelevant. He just isn't going to beat elite opponents. I never liked him because of the Herrera incident, and now I find myself forgetting he exists. Mikey Garcia - With so many in-house PBC matchups we could've seen, why did we end up seeing Garcia-Spence? What a bad decision on so many levels. It's a no-win situation for almost everyone involved, and the fight wasn't even very entertaining. Mikey can still accomplish things in the sport, but he lost his 0 for a silly reason, and it seems like he's wasting his potential. Jarrett Hurd - Great to watch, but showed he is not elite in his losing effort to Williams. Daniel Jacobs - Had the opportunity of a lifetime (twice) to beat an aging GGG and a perhaps overrated Canelo. Came up short in both efforts. Jacobs is a good fighter who can come again, but I always get the feeling he isn't as good as we want him to be. Amir Khan - Irrelevant. Adam Kownacki - Was an exciting HW prospect whose hype and 0 was extinguished last weekend by the ghost of the nordic nightmare. J'Leon Love - Racking up losses. Basically a gatekeeper now. Luis Ortiz - Had some mystique a year or two ago. 45 years old and finished. Andy Ruiz Jr. - Was a guy who pretty much only hardcore fans knew about, but they knew he had legitimate skills. Became king of the mountain for a minute, then got fatter and lazier. Looks like his run in big time boxing is probably over, though I'm sure he'll be in one or two more higher profile fights. Massively wasted opportunity. Erros Spence Jr. - I don't know that he will fight again at an elite level. I believe the car crash took something from him. He's still showing up to fights drunk. Career could be over. Adonis Stevenson - Suffered career ending injury vs. Gvozdyk. Keith Thurman - Got his Pacquiao money and left the sport. Probably somewhere in India doing yoga. Deontay Wilder - Perhaps the biggest name in the stable. Lost his 0 to Fury, getting beat up over 7 rounds. Looked like everything his detractors have been saying he is for years. Career could be over, and "most definitely" is over should he lose the upcoming rematch in the same fashion. Almost all of these fighters have seen their stock drop significantly in the past year. Very, very few PBC fighters have fights lined up. What's going on with this company? While I think losing a 0 shouldn't be as big a deal as it is, that's the current boxing climate among casual fans, and PBC has lost a lot of 0's as of late. Has the money finally run out? With Golden Boy slowing to a halt, The Bopfather talking of selling, HBO and SHO fizzling, it seems there's room for a new player besides DAZN to swoop in.
There was a thread a while ago when DAZN started to take off about how PBC would survive. I said they would still be round years from now as the battle between the networks would take time to resolve. But damn the way PBC's roster has been hit, I'm having doubts now. Especially as the Wilder/Fury PPV didn't do very well, you have to wonder how long Showtime is willing to pump money into a loss making venture and follow HBO's example and use that money to invest in other programming. But things can change quickly in boxing. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but tough times for PBC right now for sure. Hunter Jr is a Haymon fighter and he's been doing well recently, though he seems to fight more on Matchroom cards. But maybe now they'll put him on Showtime and try to build him up as he's clearly the best US heavy they have not called Wilder. Joyce is about to fight Dubois and he's a Haymon fighter too. If he beats Dubois in exciting fashion maybe the British crowd will start throwing their support behind Joyce. Charles Martin between walking the earth like a God has won an IBF eliminator. While I don't see him beating Joshua or Fury, maybe Fury becomes undisputed and then retires and Martin gets a vacant title shot.
Yeah good points. They have a few bright spots, and some fighters like Hunter could end up exceeding expectations. It's alarming, though, to have a billion dollar investment and see Caleb Plant as one of the big success stories.
Biggest winner there is One Time, got his hefty Pac-money and if indeed doing yoga in that region, he could be the next Sorcerer Supreme. Garcia-Garcia is still a very good future fight though. Both with tested chins?
At HWs they certianly looking the weakest out of 3 promotions now looking at the stables PBC Ruiz Wilder Martin Ortiz Sanchez Ajagba Kownacki Washington Arreola TR Fury Rivas Miller Takam Jennings Kabayel Yoka MR AJ Whyte Parker Hunter Usyk Gassiev Bakole Hrgovic Price Allen They're still looking very dominant at WW (only because they're freezing Bud out) and LMW (untill Madrimov takes over but they will probably give him the Bud treament). Plus they still have Russell JR and Tank. Plant and Benevidez but I dont fancy their chances against Smith or BJS.
They still have Leo Santa Cruz, Gary Russell Jr. and Tank Davis. But seriously I don't like the way their career goes so far.
I think the better criteria might be to look at the career high purses these guys have enjoyed under Al Haymon and PBC.
I think the other big issue with a lot of PBC fighters they are also sold the PPV dream without actually being promoted. We know next to nothing about all of these fighters who are told they are going to be the next floyd and don’t live the life. I think the big hole in the PBC model is they don’t have an actual promoter. The shows, stories and selling Eddie Hearn does for the Matchroom shows is a big element. He’s straight out of the Dana White school.
I think Hearn and Arum have become wise to this and are investing in the divisions they need to. I think Arum missed a trick not picking up Mikey Garcia. Hearn was clever in that by signing him it gives him access to others. By having Garcia he now has access to Manny Paq and that will roll on.
From the Dana White school ? He's 10x the promoter Dana White is Bob Arum missed a trick by not picking up Mickey Garcia ?!? LOL When did you ' pick up' on boxing ? A year ago ?
Who Eddie Hearn. I prefer him too but Dana White has promoted the UFC from a loss making business to a major sport adn $4billion business. Regarding Mikey. i know their history but theres no love lost in business. If you go to Mikey with a $10m cheque to fight Crawford. He would be fighting on a Top Rank Show no doubt.
