If I remember correctly at some point in 2017 Eddie was claiming his Saturday night shows were going to be of PPV standard, and PPV cards were going to be reserved for mega events? Whyte vs Browne must have been the best of them on regular sky last year (or was that PPV I don't remember tbf)? Okolie vs Chamberlain was a good fight on paper Brook/Khan are big names so any event they headline is worthy of a Saturday night show I don't think we can accuse these fights of being PPV standard though lol Was this year better or worse than previous years?
Whyte Browne was non PPV and was embarrassing. Okolie Chamberlain was woeful. Khan Lo Greco was more than embarrassing. Brook Rabchenka was OK and Brook Zerafa proved Brook doesn't even deserve to be a stand alone event on regular Sky.
No, one of his worst years in terms of actual match-ups/cards. Although i can understand why his focus may have slipped, with a lot of his focus going on Matchroom USA, but that's still no excuse for no world title fights on regular Sky or the PPVs he's put on.
From a business POV I imagine he did. The 2nd, 5th and 11th biggest selling PPV fights in British history were in 2018. It's testimony to how massive Joshua is that even when he fights opponents such as Parker and Povetkin, which the man in the street has essentially never heard of, he does bigger numbers than Mayweather Hatton and Mayweather Pacquaio respectively. The figures for Bellew Usyk were very good as well considering how little was known in general about Usyk. In terms of his biggest names, a slightly mixed year. Joshua has ticked along doing about as well as can be expected if Wilder and Fury aren't fighting him. Whyte has probably been the most significant in terms of increasing his profile. Brook however has had another bad year and now looks to be at the point whereby his career is winding down with a whimper.
From a financial view they would have made a stack of cash. Fan entertainment/value, pretty moderate.
A minor point in the grand scheme of things but I've seen 'no world title fights in 2018 on Sky' mentioned quite a few times. Wasn't McDonnell Inoue on normal Sky?
Wasn't a real world title, as well you know Mr. Matchroom. EDIT: I should add though, there were world title fights on regular Sky sports last year. Jacobs vs Derevyanchenko, Andrade vs Kautondokwa, Farmer vs Tennyson, Farmer vs Fonseca, Beterbiev vs Johnson. But no world title fights on their regular Sky sports, UK shows, I believe.
Fair point. Wilder Ortiz was on regular Sky as well. If the question is 'no world title fights on regular UK shows which were not on PPV,' I suppose a question which could be asked would be which shows these could have been and who would have been fighting? Whyte didn't fight for a world title. Joshua has been on PPV for years and I think anyone reasonable knows he's not going onto normal Sky for some time if ever. Brook didn't fight for a world title and neither did Khan. Quigg did but he fought in the US. Yafai fought in America and Monaco.
Pretty mediocre stuff. But compared with the domestic competition, he did quite well. Boxnation is on it's knees, and to me (an outsider) it didn't seem like BT made much waves either. He's lucky that the UK is like the US before the Floyd vs Pac fight. People are happy to massively overpay for mediocre fights, when it features a big name like Joshua.
I give him credit for what hes trying to achieve, but I think he seriously miscalculated how much effort it would take, and its having knock on effect throughout Matchroom. Theres a Matchroom card in Mexico card set to be announced, the US stuff, Italy, Germany, and they only get announced a few weeks in advance. Phone must be ringing off the hook trying to put it all together. Just thought "hell I can do this", and didn't look around at his resources.