Fury vs Schwarz

Deluded Frank.

ESPN/BT are in for a reality check because this will flop big style.

 

Fury doesn’t have a World title and it’s not a big fight...shouldn’t be ppv but I guess as long as it breaks even...

 

Fury v Wilder was such a epic fight. After that fight he had never been bigger in the UK.

Now he'll be lucky to do 50k buys. I get that hes after US money but hes destroying any UK momentum. They like to paint hes as big as Joshua but there is literally no proof of that.

 

That Fury Wilder 2 would of been huge. Shame.

 

The PPV status can be any fight nowadays after Pudding Whyte lowered the bar to anything goes.

Hopefully they saturate the public with many pay per pudding fights as the PPV mugths need a good poking

 

Maybe we need Breazeale/Ruiz Jr/Schwarz to put Wilder/AJ/Fury on their arse, not beat them inasmuch as give them a scare sufficient to change their calculations as to when these fights should take place.

The money men were probably right to delay them previously, but that process can't go on indefinitely. For me the fights have already lost some of their lustre simply due to fatigue from the incessant arguing over money between the camps.

I'm leery of drawing too many conclusions, anyone can have a bad day and if you add jetlag or hour upon hour of repetitive questioning to the mix its a wonder that interviews are as civil as they are, but... I know exactly what you mean and I get similar vibes. Fury gave IFL quite a chippy interview last week where he intimated imminent retirement and looked like he wanted to be anywhere else. For all the gypsy king bravado, there's a brittleness to Tyson at times which is a little worrying. However, as above, not something we can read too much into.

 

If this was in the UK at a sensible time it might have done average based on Fury's talk but surely this flops massively as it's in the US

 

Eubank-Benn
Benn-McClellan
Lewis-Bruno
Hagler-Leonard-Duran-Hearns in their round robin
Bowe-Holyfield
De La Hoya-Mosley-Trinidad
etc. etc. etc.

To think that none of those fights were on PPV in the UK but in 2019 we've been reduced to the ****ing shite we're expected to pay a reasonable fee for. Yes there have been fights that have been arguably as bad as Fury-Schwarz on PPV - Bellew-Cleverly, Khan-McCloskey but those were generally once in a blue moon type occurrences but in 2019 we are literally getting PPV's of this quality on a monthly basis.

Rant over.

 

I think the model has changed drastically since many of those fights. Boxing back then drew a massive audience on free to air tv. Benn McClellan for instance got 17 million viewers in addition to the 10,000 gate. What gets 17 million viewers these days? Nothing, the audience is fragmented across hundreds of channels, paywalls and web alternatives and the ad revenue has fragmented alongside it. Boxing is at fault for putting itself behind those paywalls at times, but its not the only sport that's struggled to adjust to the new broadcast landscape.

The best hope for boxing fans is probably the DAZN model. Internet based platforms with reduced distribution costs and enjoying economies of scale from international operations. Whether it works or not and makes it to the UK remains to be seen.

 

Frank has confirmed Warrington Vs Galahad isn't pay per view, great for the fans

 

The top fighters generally got paid less back then despite millions more watching their fights, you make some good points about the landscape changing and as I've said before more than once I'm not against the concept of PPV when done right but what's happening now is pure greed and utter contempt for the fans by the promoters and fighters. If people stopped buying these PPV's I guarantee you the fights would still happen.

 

I think there's been some progress in terms of how much the fighter gets, Barry Hearn tried to make this point the other day but unfortunately it got lost in the furore around his unfortunate choice of the 'slave owner' analogy.

Personally I think the £20 price point is at least realistic, as opposed to the US gouging of 90 usd. I don't resent AJ's fights being PPV, a genuine world class unified HW champion was always going to command a higher price. Likewise for the finals of the WBSS where I'm seeing the best in the division with a big prize at stake. Most of the rest I think are taking the ****. Although last year the card I thought most risible was Whyte Parker and that turned out to be a really entertaining night!

 

To be fair fights involving two non-British fighters are typically only PPV at the very highest level. Canelo Jacobs for example was on standard Sky.

 

90 USD for the likes of Crawford v Khan - the biggest PPV Mugths in the world are found in the land of the non free

 

Comon Tony keep up with the times - Sky charged the standard PPV fee for an exhibition fight between Fraud and Conman McGregor