Jack Catterall vs. Jorge Luis Linares Palencia & Aqib Fiaz vs. Reece Bellotti RBR.

A crap fight.

 

Round 1: Catterall 10-9
Round 2: Catterall 10-9
Round 3: Catterall 10-9
Round 4: Catterall 10-9

40-36 Catterall

Good defensive work from Catterall.

 

Unless Catterall becomes mandatory for a belt, people aren't going to queue up to fight him. Awkward defensive style and few will pay to watch him.

And soon as I typed that he nearly put Linares down. Shows all I know.

 

Round 1: Catterall 10-9
Round 2: Catterall 10-9
Round 3: Catterall 10-9
Round 4: Catterall 10-9
Round 5: Catterall 10-9

50-45 Catterall

 

I would love to know matchroom UK ticket sales since they moved to DAZN.

I think they miss sky selling there shows

 

Round 1: Catterall 10-9
Round 2: Catterall 10-9
Round 3: Catterall 10-9
Round 4: Catterall 10-9
Round 5: Catterall 10-9
Round 6: Catterall 10-9

60-54 Catterall

Wood vs Warrington did great numbers in Sheffield. Cordina sold out the Cardiff Arena twice. Joshua sold out the O2 against Franklin and originally against Whyte. Pattinson vs Jenkins did more numbers in Newcastle than Ritson vs Davies. Catterall vs Linares outsold Buatsi vs Azeez which had Sky backing. Taylor vs Cameron outsold the 3 Arena at insanely expensive tickets doing a bigger gate than Haney vs Lomachenko. Eubank Jr vs Benn sold out the O2 within a few hours. Wood vs Lara I sold out the Nottingham Arena.

But trust me bro, Matchroom shows in the UK are the only ones who do poor numbers! Why don’t we talk about the other promoters as well and not just Matchroom?

 

Stinking the place out again. There aren't many fighters as dull to watch

 

Round 1: Catterall 10-9
Round 2: Catterall 10-9
Round 3: Catterall 10-9
Round 4: Catterall 10-9
Round 5: Catterall 10-9
Round 6: Catterall 10-9
Round 7: Catterall 10-9

70-63 Catterall

 

Do Warren shows sell more with BT/TNT exposure compared to BoxNation? I'm not sure they do. Channel 5 shows aren't generally in big venues so hard to say if they make any difference for the promoters.

I do think there's something in the lack of Sky promotion but it's more about building up fighters over the years than selling single shows. Things like appearing on Sky Sports News, Soccer AM, etc etc make the difference and the promoter / management probably drove that as much as Sky did. Catterall might have done better if anyone knew who he was, they're not going to find out on DAZN. Same for fighters on TNT now, let's be honest.

 

The thing is, and I'm always hesitant to reply to you because it's seen as a pile on, people do discuss poor attendances and cards with Queensbury, Boxxer etc but you never acknowledge it. I'll accept that there's probably a slightly higher level of criticism levelled at EH and Matchroom because of the personality and ego of the promoter but all cards and shows on here don't go without criticism.

 

Round 1: Catterall 10-9
Round 2: Catterall 10-9
Round 3: Catterall 10-9
Round 4: Catterall 10-9
Round 5: Catterall 10-9
Round 6: Catterall 10-9
Round 7: Catterall 10-9
Round 8: Catterall 10-9

80-72 Catterall

Catterall hurt Linares at the end of the round. He’ll stop him in the next 2.

Most UK shows nowadays do poor numbers compared to pre-covid for lots of reasons. Obviously with Sky Matchroom shows would sell better, but I don’t think it makes a huge difference to be honest. The real difference is for the PPV number for PPV shows.

 

Is it that they use bigger venues now? Boxing seems to have gone down the music route that everything has to be an event and playing a smaller venue than last time is an admission of failure.

 

Think that's about right. I just worry for boxing generally, not just because of Covid but because it's spread far too thinly on TV. People don't know what boxers are on what channel and probably miss them, when Sky on a Saturday night was just something people did for a few years.

 

Round 1: Catterall 10-9
Round 2: Catterall 10-9
Round 3: Catterall 10-9
Round 4: Catterall 10-9
Round 5: Catterall 10-9
Round 6: Catterall 10-9
Round 7: Catterall 10-9
Round 8: Catterall 10-9
Round 9: Catterall 10-9

90-81 Catterall

Catterall better fight Taylor or Prograis next or I won’t be watching him if it’s another poor opponent. The stoppage is there but he is so passive. Very frustrating to watch.

 

Dunno if it's a sound problem or the speed he talks, I can hardly make out a word Edwards says.