Boxing as an organization is a joke. People do not take it serious and as a result is a 3rd tier sport.
Did Kovalev claim that PPVs were low because of Ward? Can you give a link, I'd like to see it in context? Thanks.
What exactly do you expect Kovalev to do to become a bigger draw? He came to USA as a foreigner, didn't even know the language at first. He learned the English language (unlike the vast majority of Latin American fighters), fought everyone in the division he could, has an exciting fighting style, high finish rate, talks about punishing people, did all the interviews and promos before the fight... He did everything to promote himself and the fight. Ward comes from a country that is supposedly the home of boxing and the home of the PPV model, he has been boxing in the USA on the highest level for years yet still can't sell **** because he simply has a boring personality and style and has done nothing to promote himself. If Kovalev was some Russian version of Ward he wouldn't bother to learn the language and would just whine about everything through some translator, he would also have a boring style. In this case the fight wouldn't even sell 20k PPVs. Kovalev was the reason it even went past the 100k limit.
Imagine the earnings potential of Kovalev if he was Mexican. He's pull in Canelo like numbers, if not bigger.
None of them are draws except Pac and Canelo. Loma, GG, Ward, Crawford, none of them. Still there are good fights to be watched.
That's absolute nonsense that Kovalev did 100k by himself so your basically saying his more popular than GGG which just isn't true. Ward vs Brand did 700k views where's Kovalev vs Chilemba did 300k so in terms of there last numbers Ward did better with a less credible opponent. Don't get me wrong Ward isn't popular considering his from the country but if Kovalev was so popular in Russia he would be fighting there instead of the US.
Kovalev vs Chilemba did 300k? I don't know the numbers but I guess you mean in the USA. Well no **** it did low numbers considering it was fought in Russia on a Monday night, considering the time difference that was like Monday early afternoon when people are at work in the USA. It's actually a great number considering the circumstances. Kovalev isn't big in Russia because he left for USA and fighters there, but fighters who are actually big in Russia like Povetkin and Lebedev are much bigger stars than Ward. If Ward had to fight Povetkin or Lebedev (assuming they were in the same weight class) he would have to fly his ass over to Moscow and fight there, just like Wilder had no choice, because Povetkin and Lebedev are the A-side fighters. Ward is a complete unknown in the USA, literally no one there knows or cares about him. The GGG comparison is ******ed, you're comparing apples and oranges here. GGG did 150k by himself in a fight where he was the heavy favorite, if Kovalev did 100k by himself in a much more relevant fight then this isn't saying that he is more popular than GGG but rather the opposite.
Kovalev vs Pascal averaged under 1.2M viewers and Ward vs Barerra did over 1M now considering Pascal is more of a name than Barerra what you will notice is they have a similar popularity in the U.S I would argue Ward is slightly more popular being sponsored by Jordan and having people like Steph Curry as good friends. Wilder had no choice coz Povetkins promoter was paying silly money, Vlad also went to Russia are you gunna say Povetkin is the A side in that fight? I thought the GGG numbers were 97k not 150k so I'll recant that statement.
GGG did 150k. So Kovalev doing more numbers than Ward is your argument that Ward is more popular? LMAO. Who the hell is Steph Curry? Povetkin's promoter was paying that money because Povetkin brings that much money to the table in Russia where he is much more popular than Wilder and Ward are in the USA. Russia is a huge market, Povetkin is like 10 times a bigger star than Ward globally. Wlad going to Russia also tells you what kind of a big name Povetkin is. Boxing is a niche sport in USA, Povetkin is a big star in Russia and Kovalev being at least somewhat popular there makes him a much bigger star than Ward as well.