Finkel "When Wilder KOs AJ we want millions of people to see it"

I think the meeting just established that Al Haymon cannot afford for the current Boxing PPV broadcasting model in the US to be overturned. Billions of dollars are at stake, in comparison to which his slice of Wilder's 120m is chicken feed.

His vision is building fighters using free to air then graduating them to Showtime and then on to Showtime PPV. That's the basis on which he's spent all that money acquiring talent. Now DAZN come in threatening to make the idea of paying 90 bucks for a single night of boxing unthinkable. He can't allow that to happen and nothing John Skipper, Eddie or Barry Hearn or even the ghosts of Jack Johnson, Muhammad Ali and anyone else would've said would change that reality.

It's not just PBC that's on the line. Showtime Boxing don't want to go the way of HBO. They are in an existential struggle as fans cut the cable and replace it with Netflix. Maybe sports they think is what will keep that cable connection relevant?

Bottom line, they want to kill DAZN now before it kills them.

 

Jesus ****ing h Christ, that offer sent in a 2 line email by Wilder was nothing of the ****ing sort. No terms, no conditions, no date, no contract, all to be taken in 24 hrs equals no ****ing deal! AJ has already proven himself to be a PPV star multiple times and sold record breaking gates, including at MSG. Wilder has sold 1 PPV off the back of Fury's popularity and by uttering Joshua's name every other sentence.

Wilder has held his ONE belt hostage for 6-7 years, fighting in only his second mandatory in Breazeale who AJ has already annihilated. And since when has Wilder negotiated anything with AJ? There has been no point at which both teams have sat in the same room and negotiated anything, hence why John Skipper felt compelled to intercede in a bid to make the fight.

I'm also pretty sure that the 16,000 viewer figure is bogus as it came from a rival source and even if it was the case, I guarantee that AJ / Miller will be a success. AJ and his team are conceding more and more all the time, how much more do you really expect a 4 belt holder, unified champion to continue to concede?

 

The arguments you made here, which are almost verbatum of what Eddie said last year, have all been disproven time and time again. AJ had as legit an offer as any fight he has ever offered out. Instead of negotiating and engaging, he said the offer was fake and demanded a contract before even agreeing basic terms. AJ then walked away and so Wilder made the Fury fight. You also forget that Wilder accepted the flat fee offered to him but then AJ insisted on a one-way rematch clause smh. This is all ancient history.

As I said, AJ has no A-Side argument to make for a fight in Vegas. He has to make concessions now as he's desperate and DAZN is not happy with the 16,000 he drew.

AJ chose to be the big man shot caller when he had the chance and it back-fired. I'm sure he'll be fine in the long run though and the big fights will hopefully come his way in 2020.

 

Showtime needs to go do its own App then strictly for Sports/or boxing content.

There demise is immanent anyway . Wilder wont be around much longer ,I would say 2022 is his shelf life. New and better talents will go to whoever pays more and more and more will notice its the Showtime/ PBC people holding up relevant fights from happening. Haymon should just merge PBC and Showime App? IDK? I thought they were going to do that OR CREATE Wilder Bombsquad promotions and operate secretly under that using wilder as the puppet..

To just announce Wilder is fighting on Showtime is just dumb ,theres literally no motive behind that vs a 120 million deal in place .lol

 

Hearing Finkel interviewed is really helping me with my Woody Allen impression

 

Great on PPV. You are setting the bar low. It did par on PPV and as for the Gate. You can't even tell me what the official Gate was because they never released it. Now ask yourself why didn't they release that number if as you say it did great?

You name me 1 PPV fight where the official Gate number wasnt released?

So as you don't know the official Gate, you don't even know the UK PPV numbers either so please explain how you have come to the conclusion the fight generated more revenue than any AJ fight?

Now here's the kicker. Why the fcuk is the super popular Wilder, the PPV star not fighting on PPV v Breazeale.

His stock has risen and from here out his a PPV star ............. Oh wait

 

Let’s do the maths.

Fury - Wilder generated around 18 million pounds from 325k PPV buys.

AJ - Wlad generated 30 million pounds from 1.5M buys.

Levels.

 

DAZN is not happy yet they are paying AJ $35 mil to fight Miller. What planet do you live on as it clearly isn't this one.

 

I'm sure this is true. In my opinion it comes down to whether DAZN's billionaire investor is willing to keep upping the ante and losing even more money on a long-term basis. If he is, he not only has to destroy the PPV model but also has to overtake the already dominant and basic cable affiliated ESPN+. DAZN are trying to do what PBC did, but they started from zero whereas PBC/Haymon already had the best stable in world boxing.

HBO crumbling was a god-send for DAZN but I think they really need to start poaching fighters from Haymon and the Bob Father if they're gonna take over. Then if they're really in it for the long-long-term they need to start winning over all the youngsters turning pro. It's a huge task and fair play to them for getting stuck in. They've done amazing so far and don't look like they're wavering yet!

 

WTF ARE YOU ON ABOUT? Espinoza was outed to be an outright BULLSHITTER with regard to that.......offer. Wilder is risking so much by going the route he is choosing. Defeating Breazeale is no forgone conclusion. The first time that Wilder won't be fighting a cherry pick. He'll be fighting a bigger guy, in his prime who can punch, who will be having a full camp and is extremely motivated.

How is an offer legit when it comes from the fighter and not the promotional/management team, that makes no ****ing sense what so ever. Wilders team and Warren stated that the money was in escrow, the money was coming from BT, then it was Shotime, then Haymon, then it would depend on the PPV. In other words, nobody had any clue at the time where the money was coming from.

Even Espinoza, the chief exec. FFS didn't have the first clue what he was talking about. All that isn't FACT, it's EMBARRASSING!

 

A fight on DAZN definitely isn't worth $100mn without their investor being willing to lose the bulk of that. However, on Showtime PPV it's totally doable in my opinion. They believe they can build this into a 1mn+ buy PPV in the US. That might put it over $100mn based purely on the US revenue.

I would be far more inclined to trust Al Haymon and Finkel on the business of boxing than Eddie Hearn, who's never even put on a US PPV.

 

From the LA times.

Wilder v Fury where 17,698 who generated a $3.5-million live gate.

What a huge Gate

I don't know how AJ has never grossed so much.

Now back on the real world we know the score.

 

The conversation online went like this.

Espinoza “you know you saw the contract and didn’t sign it”

Hearn “show me the contract you sent then”

Espinoza “well I didn’t actually send it so I can’t”

Lol ok mate.

 

What are you on? Where are these extra 675k fans coming from? Is AJ bringing them in?

 

Again, you're just banging on about a load of tosh you heard Eddie say on IFL before Wilder Fury even happened. AJ walked away from $80mn for 2 fights before Wilder Fury was even discussed. Since then AJ's stock has really fallen and Wilder's has gone up. AJ has to explain away a 16,000 viewer fight and Wilder has had a successful US event and PPV.

The world has turned. AJ is not the A-Side in the US and if he wants a big fight it looks like he is gonna have to take a huge 50-50 payday on Showtime or ESPN+. None of us should feel sorry for the man as he's about to make a boat load in any case.