Fury/Whyte Split confirmed

Whyte Chisora 1 was an undercard fight.

 

Well I think if we are being truly honest with ourselves, we know whyte sold those tickets because he was on the card, rather than the rest of the event. Its another discussion though.

My point was Fury had already made USA his home when he left UK market behind. And he already had the momentum and rocket fuel from the Wilder fight still fresh in everyone's minds. And he is promoted by two long time, well established promoters Frank Warren and Bob Arum... so he has solid access to both UK and USA markets. These guys are the most seasoned active promoters alive today. So Fury had plenty of opportunity to drive ticket sales... no excuses. Wallin and Schwarz fights weren't debuts.

And like I said with Whyte, he sold out arenas on multiple occasions indicative of repeat sales. If Whyte was even remotely as crap as people make out on this forum, or how Frank Warren would have you believe in terms of commercial value... no way would people be filling up arenas to watch Whyte on more than one occasion. They would have "learnt their lesson" and just stayed away from this "crappy" fighter.

I can also argue than cost of living in USA is better than UK. They make more money on average in USA for the same jobs we have in UK. So more disposable income. And I am not sure how much the tickets were for the Fury fights, but when I paid for Usyk vs Spong in Chicago the ticket was 40 dollars. Which even as a Brit I considered cheap, for a USA citizen might seem even cheaper.

 

No problem, we can leave that one out. Thats fair, I mean I did leave out the 2.7 Million PPV buys....

 

Still far too many variables in your post to convince me it’s a fair yardstick for comparison.

Ignoring who I’m obviously referring to here, if I was to tell you fighter A) has 446k Instagram followers and fighter B) has 5.4million - which would you say is more popular?

Using Instagram followers is obviously a bit vapid - but it’s a fair comparison in this instance.

 

I would say if there is no other metric that involves paying customers, movie sales etc etc.. then yeah number of followers is a metric to fall back on. And thats the operative part here.. in the context of boxing... number of tickets shifted by a boxer in a non title bout should undoubtedly take precedence as a metric for popularity between fighters. Because customers are paying money to go see someone and be entertained.

 

Didn’t answer the question though.

Bottom line is, it’s difficult to compare like for like until there’s a comparable baseline. There isn’t. Two British fighters but one fights in the US vs someone who fights in the UK - to compare that as a like for like ignores all context.

I don’t think you’d be doing Whyte a disservice to give this one up. I’m sure even you can admit that Fury is more popular than Whyte. There’s no need to die on that hill.

 

Its disingenuous to call Fury a "british" fighter in this context, when he set up shop/home in USA, and Ive already explained very clearly how he established his presence in the USA through the Wilder fight and Top Rank promotions. Fury left the UK for the USA market a while back, and it was covered in the media.

Yeah you asked me a question, and I asked for context. And then I compared Fury vs Whyte ticket sales, and you asked me for more context.

I made a very fair comparison, unless you are telling me that people dont attend boxing in the USA in the same numbers as UK... or boxing is not as popular in USA vs UK? I don't need to compare Whyte and Fury in the same country for a common baseline. The only common baseline thats needed is "physical attendance" i.e. paying customers. There are paying customers in every country. Thats the common ground.

Had you said boxing is not as popular in the USA vs UK, and it there was evidence to prove that... then yeah thats a valid point of contention.

But USA is huge, bigger than UK. And boxing is just as popular if not more in USA.

 

I’m not going round in circles on this so might just leave it here - but if you can’t see why comparing a UK fighter’s ticket sales in the USA to a UK fighter’s ticket sales in the UK isn’t a valid comparison then it’s pointless continuing.

 

I added to say, Its disingenuous to call Fury a "british" fighter in this context, when he set up shop/home in USA, and Ive already explained very clearly how he established his presence in the USA through the Wilder fight and Top Rank promotions. Fury left the UK for the USA market a while back, and it was covered in the media.

So I don't acknowledge your point of Fury being a "british" sports figure campaigning in foreign land in this context, when Fury already established himself in USA before Wallin and Schwarz fights. Whyte stayed in UK to establish himself there. Both had equal measure of promotional exposure, Fury having a big title fight to boost his name. And going overseas with Klitkcho scalp already on his resume. Whyte had no such thing.

I think you just love to play devils advocate with me.

 

Americans only back their own really. The exception being Canelo but that’s down to the Latin population and the proximity of Mexico.

Fury is a far bigger name in the UK than the US.

As Fury doesn’t fight in the UK it’s difficult to legitimately compare pulling power based on ticket sales. You disagree but we clearly aren’t going to budge on that.

One benchmark we do have is social media - and Fury having 12x the instagram followers Whyte does indicates him being a far bigger brand.

 

Well if only 4000 people from his 5,500,000 instagram followers attend his fights that's nothing short of a marketing/branding blunder. Something has gone terribly wrong with that hit ratio.

That represents less than 0.1 % hit ratio for Fury, meanwhile Whyte is getting 4.5% hit ratio, or about 50x Furys marketing performance.

By the way Lennox Lewis was backed by USA. Fury seems to be getting shunned by comparison, same way he did in UK against AJ.

 

Lewis isn’t a fantastic comparison because, again, context. He was around in a very strong era where (and this is the key point here) the USA had their own batch of great HWs. It’s natural there’s going to be greater interest in those fights.

I know I haven’t addressed everything you’ve said here - I’m on a train and using my phone. Can reply properly later.

 

For such a money hungry guy, and for someone who hasn't earned much, Whyte could try selling a couple of books and selling out arenas around the country with his "brother".

Fury has two best-selling books and sells out arenas around the country with his father.

Tyson Fury has over 5.4 million Instagram followers. Replace the 5 with a 0 and you get Whyte's followers.

The suits in America though that Fury warranted a $100m (baseline) 5 fight deal. Whyte made a measly total of £300,000 in his last outing.

Although I am Whyte's biggest fan and Fury's biggest hater, I have to admit that nobody cares about Whyte and nobody would bat an eyelid if he were to retire tomorrow. Nobody cares. Fury, though, is already a legend or "Hall of Famer".

 

Eh... no.

Fury elicited a $100m deal from the yanks and had the crowd in the palm of his hand as he beat their long-reigning champion.

 

Thank you. Good points well made and a few things I’d forgotten ie the book.

Even Paris Fury has almost DOUBLE Whyte’s Instagram following.

It’s ridiculous to suggest Whyte is more popular than Fury, and to do so using straw man arguments and flawed comparisons is just disingenuous.

I quite like Whyte and he’s fun to watch - but people need to be honest. He’s not nearly as popular as Fury.