A PPV should be an event, a once in year event like Joshua / Fury will be, something that whets the appetite and salivates the mouth. Same as Floyd v Pac was. Something that you don't mind paying for as it commands a worldwide audience. An event that screams out "I must be there / I must see this", not the pap that is now regularly churned out. Sadly, the horse has long bolted and other than a complete blanket from the fans, we are stuck with it. I waited until about 2am and watched R1, R2, R7 and R8 on Youtube. Plus a brief highlights. It's the only way to go, avoid your phone notifications and then watch a video a couple of hours later.
The criteria Sky and Matchroom have for trying to push a pay-per-view at heavyweight is something like this (would be here all day if we considered the other divisions - heavyweight is quite simple): 1. Any fight that could be considered by some as world level. 2. One of the boxers has previously competed at world level. 3. One of the boxers is a 'contender'. Justifications for a "stacked undercard": 1. Past it or shot fighters who have had some sort of reputation (Selby, Burns, Crolla, a Smith brother etc.) 2. Dave Allen 3. Womens boxers competing for some sort of title. 4. Relative of a former or current name competing. Justifications for a top-class promotion: 1. Ex-boxer pundits who are in bed with Eddie 2. Millenium Dome 3. Sweet Caroline 4. Anthony Joshua in the audience or offering punditry. I also remember when pay-per-views were big events, something people would be talking about, not just high level sport which is what Sky should be obligated to offer its viewers in the first place.
Buying a PPV is like buying music on CD, the only ones who still do it are the ones who haven’t got their **** together to access it some other way. Naturally, I pay for it if I want to see it as I wouldn’t want to stop people like Chisora, Bellew and Whyte becoming multi millionaires.
I’m pretty much repeating what everyone else has said but Jesus wept Bellew last night was unbareable, screeching like a teenage girl every two minutes. I’ve just watched his IFL interview too and he looks like he’s about to burst into tears. The blokes a complete spanner and easily the worst pundit on Sky, which takes some doing. Matchroom/sky really need to up there game in terms of pundits. Let’s have some actual insight instead of ex ‘big name’ fighters screaming for there mates and being biased beyond belief. The whole thing gets worse and worse every time.
Watching highlights the way to go? You need to take up fishing mate as many on here down the river last night. The rod was bumped a few times by fellow anglers and the first fish I caught was so ugly that it looked like Pudding Chisora followed by a slippery Adam Smith Pike last seen at weigh-ins. Once we had a few in the net, we all watched the boxing courtesy of Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing. Watching PPV boxing these days has never been so inexpensive and nobody should be watching highlights on youtube.
Haha, fair enough. My line has been snagged before in the past, was fishing an English River, my line got snagged and suddenly, my English River turned into a Russian Lake!
A Dame Smith and Tony Bellew heard loud and clear on the River Mersey last night - sometimes it is better when the boats enters foreign waters.
I find him highly cringeworthy. He also seems very bitter that he lost against Usyk. You can tell he's desperate for Usyk to lose. I don't know why Sky think the audience like it - do Matchroom FC enjoy his analysis and 'passion' or something? The replies to his tweets on the fight suggest not..
All the games not selected for sky or bt were on PPV for the last month, 15 quid a pop. Relatively speaking hardly any buys and some fans groups organised donations to food banks instead of giving it to the greedy clubs
It's Adam Smith's fault for allowing Hearn to get his best buddies, analyst roles after they've retired. No one can seriously say they want to see Froch, Bellew or Coldwell ever on our screens analysing the boxing. The three of them are all useless in their own ways. Froch just sits there like a lemon doing his shoulder roll every 2 mins spouting out complete and utter guff. Unsure of himself, he always ends up looking for reassurance about his own opinions Bellew. Where do i start with this fat hamster cheeked ****. Why hasn't anyone at Sky or Matchroom told him to shut the f up and stop mouthing off from ringside. It's embarassing for a grown man to behave like that. Penfold aka Dave Coldwell aka Imran Rashid. This guy would sell his own mother for a pound note. He's that slimey, sneaky and shady. He should be nowhere near our screens.
Completely agree with this. Is that Dave Coldwell's real name ? I thought he was Indian not Pakistani ( not that it matters, of course, two fine countries ).
The whole set up is completely nauseating now and it’s nigh on impossible to get impartial coverage. Bellew was a complete embarrassment and has become a parody of himself; I actually enjoyed his punditry a few years back. The cherry on the top was the Sweet Caroline music as the camera panned across and empty studio- total lack of self awareness.
