How long can Haymon realistically hold out?

He’s already held out longer than I thought.

 

Interestingly, PBC started by paying networks (NBC, CBS, FOX, ESPN) to televise its boxing programs, which was never sustainable. The plan was to run rival promoters off those networks and build new stars who would eventually become PPV stars.

The PPV stars "thing" never really worked out. But it helped Haymon forge a relationship with CBS (which owns Showtime).

Now, PBC bouts are really only on Showtime.

I actually just subscribed to Showtime for the first time in forever because it was only a buck or two since I subscribe to the Paramount Plus app.

I just did some checking. Apparently, the Paramount Plus app has 77 million subscribers. Showtime, which is piggybacking off of it, now has 64 million subscribers. I think that's more subscribers than Showtime has EVER had. (I remember when Showtime had fewer than 10 million subscribers.)

I just looked to see how many subscribers DAZN and ESPN plus have.

DAZN has 15 million subscribers GLOBALLY. (I couldn't find how many were in the US. But DAZN lost $2 billion in 2021. Not sure about last year.)

ESPN Plus currently has 24 million subscribers, about one-third the number of Showtime.

So basically Showtime has nearly DOUBLE the viewers of ESPN+ and DAZN COMBINED.

So, if Haymon hasn't blown through all his money, he has the BEST partner in the US to carry his boxing shows (in terms of numbers of viewers) BY FAR.

Having the largest possible audience may eventually get him over the hump.

But putting his biggest stars in the ring only once a year has basically caused Wilder to look around for more action.

It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out. The younger guys coming up may not make as much as those PBC boxers in the 2015-2020 era, but they are in a position to become more well known than those new fighters rising up the ranks on DAZN and ESPN Plus.

Showtime has been airing cards every couple weeks with new guys on the rise. If PBC can change the way it's been doing business, they may not be finished yet.

 

It's still the best matchup in boxing

 

Rumours however is showtime boxing is not a priority for paramount and the budget has already been cut drastically hence the need for anything PBC to be PPV.

If matchroom manage to put on wilder vs Ruiz. It will surely on prove to the last remaining draws such as Spence that maybe the money for the Crawford fight is away from the PBC

 

Yeah those rumours been playing for months now, in that case I can see PBC finding another way as per usual.

 

Everybody knows Spence knocks out Crawford easily. Thus, they don't match Spence with Crawford yet to keep the cash cow alive for a little while longer till people starts grumbling.

 

When did Spence last knock anyone out?

 

You would think so. But they need to make a move within the next 6 months. Otherwise they have next to nothing to offer networks with their biggest draws only doing 200k buys and some not fighting at all

 

Pfft. He can knock out middleweights

 

If this fight is ever made it deserves to be boycotted. Anything less will only encourage similar match making in the future. It's already 1 car crash and one detached retina too late. How old is Crawford now? 37? 38? So if they end up having a trilogy crawford will most likely be in his 40s by the time it's over.

 

Last April.

 

TKO

 

@Wizbit1013 so?

 

He aint sparked anyone in years

 

I'm not focusing on big fights.

At this point, I'm talking about how PBC can not just stay afloat but turn things around with a long-term strategy. IMO, it might be wise of them to start cutting the fat.

If they have guaranteed all these guys million-dollar-plus paydays, and therefore can only fight them once a year, just tell them all 'it's been fun' and 'no hard feelings' and cut them loose.

If they can get a better deal elsewhere, like Wilder is attempting to do, more power to them.

The strategy of OVERPAYING fighters (like Spence, Broner, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, etc.), BUYING OUT timeslots on networks, and trying to turn them all into PPV stars was really aggressive and risky. They took a REALLY BIG swing. But the strategy didn't work.

Let all those fighters who have gotten rich and don't fight too often go out in the open market and realize what their real value is.

The positive thing is they now have a good partnership with Showtime, which has more subscribers than every other network showing boxing.

So build new stars. Don't overpay them. Put on solid cards with solid matchups (like the Frank Martin-Michel Rivera fight). Grow the boxing audience on Showtime by not staging PPVs for a while. Let the fans get to know the new boxers.

If the "name" boxers who leave want to come back, let them know they won't get what they used to get. The "salad days" are over. And maybe they could match their new stars with the older ones.

And those fighters you build today will be more well-known in a few years than the new guys coming up on networks with far smaller audiences.