Frank Warren = only putting on shows in Telford and London

Munguia is fighting John Ryder in January. To be fair in December they have Prograis vs Haney and then Ryan Garcia fights on December 2, plus Vergil Ortiz Jr on January 6, so having a fight for the hardcores which is the best fight to be made at flyweight isn't bad. Agree that people outside of the hardcores may not be interested though.

 

I think he prefers Eddie booking Wembley arena to do Opetia v Thompson infront of 200 ppl and enough black curtain to cover the Atlantic Ocean.

 

So you're comparing a world title fight featuring the best cruiserweight in the world with shows headlined by David Adeleye against short-notice opponents and a show featuring Mark Chamberlain and Henry Turner with no announced opponents less than a month away from the event?

 

Both are shite for different reasons. A world title mismatch is still a mismatch. Matchroom has done a lot of good fights this year but alot of it has been crap as well but for some reason, you wont say it. Warren has done worse but he still put on some good fights, same with boxxer.

The most consistent good cards have come from probox this year and they have a fraction of these budgets as they are more condensed.

 

It is a great fight I agree. I thought Munguia may be fighting Canelo in May but if the Ryder fight's locked in that's terrific and I look forward to it; good January for DAZN with Vergil Ortiz back as well and the possible Vegas double world title Matchroom card January 14th.

We were speaking about Matchroom's end of 2023 specifically (not DAZN's) and so you'll understand if I don't give them too much credit for Ryan Garcia or Vergil Ortiz Jr ... Take out the Haney fight and it would be a slow US finish. But it's there, it's a great fight, and credit to them for making it - we'll ignore the undercard.

 

Opetia is a world champion, but it was a dead event and there was 150-200 in the venue. So from a ticket selling prospective, it’s a fair comparison.

Everybody including Eddie knew they wasn’t going to do any tickets, but because of his nonsense talk about smaller venues, he can’t bring himself to use them.

Catteral card was dead, he said prior to the event they sold 7k, but clearly he needs to retake GCSE maths as there was only about 2k tops in there.

I can go on and on, but what’s the point.

it’s a tough market for tickets as we all know, Frank and Boxxer are using common sense when booking York Hall etc.

Matchroom can do some cracking small hall stuff in York Hall etc with their Essex kids etc, if they would just swallow their pride

 

December 2 is a stacked card to be fair, looking forward to it. December 9 is a great fight but on PPV in the US unfortunately and a pretty bad undercard. December 16 is a fantastic fight and looking forward to it. Not sure what else you’d expect from Matchroom in December? It’s one of their best months to be honest.

Then for DAZN add Ryan Garcia plus Ohara Davies for the World Title on December 2, and Josh Kelly vs Knapp on December 16, it’s a very good schedule for UK fans. Disappointed that Haney vs Prograis is PPV in the US. I presume all of Haney’s fights will be on PPV in the future regardless of the network due to the money he demands.

 

Interim, sadly. Turns out it was a WBA administrative error, and Rolly remains the champion. That's absolute nonsense, by the way. I cannot wait for someone to knock him out again, and I really hope it's in a defence against Ohara or something so that he never gets a big payday again.

 

York hall is nowhere near capacity needed as they have boxers that sell tickets. Liverpool did around 5,700 sold and few hundred comped.

the Thompson vs Jai fight did nearly 4k with Saints, liddard and Maisey doing over a quarter of that.

matchroom are making as many big headline fights as possible in a very difficult market.

franks made the decision to do 3/4 bigger non small hall shows and blow the tv budget on that. Outside of fury. He is not silly. He knows events are a hard sell. He will sell out Telford and york hall and pay the rights fees out on a headliner usually domestic level in a fight weighted towards his man. He will do this until the WBO rank them and then go big on the mandatory fight on non PPV as on of his 3/4 bigger fights. Ala Joyce, Yarde and what he attempted with Catterall and a sharpe etc.

matchroom have bigger rights fees and as such will have bigger fighters and bigger fights on one card and sell what they can tickets wise. But it’s not even close the tickets matchroom are doing compared to any other promoter In the UK

 

A good fight is a good fight whether in front of a few hundred or a few thousand people and this includes the stale standard Matchroom mismatch cards where the outcomes are so predictable.

 

You’re a comedian. 4k tickets for Opetia -Thompson is one of the best jokes I have ever heard. The capacity for Wembley Arena is about 10k. The entire top tiers were curtained off and the lower bowls blacked out as much as possible to hide all the empty seats. I know somebody who went - he said 200 tops was in there and we’ve all seen the pictures. Im not even going to bother commenting on Liverpool.

I am not saying York Hall is suitable for all events - I’m obviously referencing the smaller shows like McCann v Baluta which was a classic.

Again, Eddie can do similar shows for Jimmy Sains etc and they will be bangers.

However, MR consistently book venues way too big because, they think they are still on Sky and banging out arenas like back in the day. Look at fighters like Dalton Smith in Sheffield. Eddie books the big arena for clout and it’s an empty shell on the night, when if it was down to them, Warren or Boxxer would most likely put it on in the more appropriate Pondes Forge and bang it out with a much better atmosphere. The Smith example has zero to do with rights fees or any other nonsense you may come out with.

 

Once again nicely edited

 

To be fair though you're deviating from the point, which is almost half of Warren's UK shows this year shouldn't even be televised. We saw the stick Hearn received for his 2 NxtGen shows of Yafai vs Frank and now Masoud in September, but these shows are 100 times worse.

Why would he put a male world title fight at York Hall?

Dalton Smith actually sold a good number of tickets when he headlined at Sheffield for the first time against Sam O'Maison. I'm sure they'll try to make the Harlem Eubank fight on the Eubank vs Benn undercard to raise his profile.

 

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I like Henry Turner vs Billy Allington. Dalton Smith beat Allington comfortably already but it's a step-up for Turner.

Chamberlain's opponent is actually good but he's a super-featherweight moving up to lightweight - typical Warren matchmaking.

I presume the rest of the card will be filled with prospects against journeymen.

 

I never said anything about putting a world title fight at York Hall, however considering the number of people in attendance, perhaps they should have. The viewing figures would have been shocking as well.

Apart from you and Trafford, there is not a single boxing fan who would suggest that half of Warren's shows shouldn't be on TV. Its such a ridiculous comment, I shouldn't have even bothered to address it.

However, this year we have had small hall classics such as; Zorro - Burton / McCann - Baluta (which was a very entertaining card) and Zorro-Spelman/
& Willy Hutxhinson double which was also very entertaining. What are the cards which shouldn't be shown on TV on a Friday night?