Eddie Hearn talks about American vs UK Audiences, Adrian Broner, Ricky Burns and more

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Little to do with what?

Of course the us has more capacity for tv audiences, it's about 5x the population of the uk. However, if you take the total European viewing figures (which is a better comparison) then I'm sure they'll be greater than those in the US.

Mayweather's fights are watched by about 1.5 million people in the US. Hatton's fight against Floyd sold over 1 million in Britain, Pacquiao probably did upwards of 700k. Haye has sold 700k+ PPVs.

HBO boxing averages around 1 million viewers. The Klitschkos routinely attract more than 12 million television viewers. Between 40-50% of all people in watching TV in Germany are watching the Klitschkos fight. Not only do they attract huge TV audiences but they routinely fight in sold out stadiums of 40k plus people.

Haye vs Valuev drew a TV audience of 8.5 million. Sturm vs Macklin attracted a TV audience of 4.5 million people in Germany alone, and sold out an 18k seat arena. A huge domestic show down featuring two undefeated American Champions in Bradley vs Alexander drew a TV audience of 1.5mil and barely sold 3k tickets iirc in the US.

I agree, crowds aren't everything but boxing is a spectator sport which has traditionally staged some great historic events. There's no denying bigs fights should be held in sold out arenas with intense atmospheres.

It's a shame that a country that calls itself the home of boxing is struggling to get fans into arenas to watch some of the best fighters in the world while attracting such relatively poor tv audiences. In my opinion the US is the home of boxing only in so far as it has casinos willing to pay to hold big fights on their sites, so the money is there. But although the money may be there, the fans aren't. In terms of staging big events and having the fans with an appetite to watch the sport in person or tune in to watch fighters on tv then I'd have to say Europe is the home of boxing.

This makes it a shame when you have fighters like Broner, Ward and Bradley struggling to sell tickets and fighting in front of muted, disinterested casino audiences whereas if they were in Europe they'd be selling out arenas with great atmospheres and attracting TV audiences of several millions.

 

Not a great deal. He's a level above Rees at the moment and one of the top lightweights in the world. Says he doesn't doubt for one moment that Burns would like to fight Broner, and that if he beats Vasquez then he doesn't really see anywhere to go after that fight buy Broner . . . BUT it's not rare in boxing for a fighter's team to decide not to take certain fights that they may not like of.