2017 and the paradigm shift in Combat Sports

Great post!

 

Does it really matter if there are more PPV viewers watching WWE or UFC? Why would I (who only watches boxing) care? Its not like a talented boxer will go to the WWE or UFC because the career prospects are better there.

 

No point reading beyond there.

 

To expand on the point about PPVs I made a bit further...

PPV model is problematic because it's a way to make the sport too elitist and confine in to a minority of people who have the money to buy the PPVs and are actually hardcore fans interested in the sport and know the fighters. It's the main reason why boxing has become a niche sport, they confined it to a niche audience of hardcore boxing fans and decided to milk them dry.

It's good for short term profit but terrible in the long run because you don't give the sport exposure and you don't promote it to the masses.

It was good for boxing in the Mike Tyson days and after that boxing was really lucky to have De La Hoya, Floyd and Pacman carry this model on but then the Mayweather Pacquiao fight really burried everything and now you have a bunch of elite fighters who had no mainstream exposure and instead of giving them that exposure they're just trying to squeeze the last dollars out of the hardcore fans and sell those pathetic PPV numbers to a smaller and smaller fanbase.

The main reason why sports like football (soccer) and even say tennis are big is because they have so much exposure, every kid can watch those events at home for free and watch the elite athlete perform. The money comes in the sport through sponsorship and TV deals and because so many people watch it those deals are huge. I remember how big the formula one was in the Schumacher days because on sundays everyone just switched on their TVs when the race was on and Schumi earned huge money, I think he's one of the highest paying athletes ever, maybe even the highest paid.

Imagine putting the Champions League final on a PPV for 100 euros/dollars. It doesn't work this way long run. It's the perfect way to alienate the sport from the masses and lose the audience in the long term.

 

Brilliant post.

If you look at all the people who have held up bih fights in the last while they have all been american based. You would probably have to go back to ottke to find a European who ever held up a fight

A prime example is aj, he is stepping in the ring with wlad no questions asked, wilder still hasn't stepped up

Jacobs held up ggg 3 months signing the fight to squeeze as much money as possible, kell brook signed the fight in a day or two

Ward stalls everything, kovalev woidl fight you for little or no money

Cruiserweight is red hot and looks like everyone will fiht everyone with the ways its going

154 and 147 lots of american top fighters there and they have stagnated the entire divisions because they all refuse to face each other.

Frampton and LSC are squaring off while Russell is talking about wanting more money and retiring.

Only american fighter iv a lot of respect for is Terence Crawford becuase he seeks like a good guy and gets fights made. Same used to be true for Bradley.

No one likes fights not getting made but in Europe they seem to get made a lot more and in a more timely fashion than in america

And if the fights don't get made the fans turn on the fighters not makes excuses for the bs, just like eubank Jr getting Savaged by fans for he's carry on

 

if someone is willing to pay for dog sheet, for sure someone will sell it to him.

 

Boxing lacks the personalities to captivate the casual fan ATM.... That's the difference maker.

 

You nailed it.

 

We needed fury to break america like named tried to do.

Can you imagine fury coming over talking he's politically incorrect bs, he would have mobs protesting him and hating him, would be great

 

One of the reasons why Britain is great for boxing because it's a small (compared to USA) country but densely populated and it's easy to sell out the arenas. Most of Europe is like that actually.

Also, the atmosphere on British boxing events or say in big Russian boxing events in Moscow is much better, you have people chanting and being passionate about the fighters they like, it looks more like a real sport event. In USA fans are always dead silent. Las Vegas is some artificial city in the middle of nowhere, I prefer fights in huge cities with working class population.

Klitschko fights in Germany were cool too, the entrances were spectacular.

 

He has the personality but he would also need to fight some established American fighter who is at least somewhat known to American public to make waves in the USA. Sadly, Wilder didn't really do anything to establish himself and hardly anyone knows him.

The best scenario for HW boxing would be that Wilder, Joshua and mentally healthy Fury would remain the last 3 men standing in the division after beating all the other contenders convincingly and then have some epic trilogy rivalries between each other, preferably with some controversial bouts in between.

This won't happen though because Wilder isn't on this level, Joshua might get exposed by Klitschko and who knows if Fury will ever fight again. I think HW division will be pretty boring in the next years, despite so many fans being optimistic about it.

 

PPV in boxing started way before Tyson, the Thrilla in Manila was PPV. After that Sugar Ray Leonard was the next big star to do PPV against Duran, Hearns, and Hagler. Tyson didn't have his first PPV until 88' by that time PPV in boxing was already a established service. I've just read this similar post from you a few times now, and just had to say Ray Leonard & Ali were the fighters that brought PPV to boxing. Tyson was ust the first to have many of his fights as champion only available on PPV.

 

As long as profit is made from PPV it will continue.

Boxing is definitely more of a niche sport now but the earning potential is still huge at the top level.

If they focus more on competitive matches than the alphabet soup the sport is drowning in, everyone will benefit.