Rigondeaux-Agebko lowest watched HBO boxing main event ever

That's their problem. A sportsman's obligation is to win. If he wants to be an entertainer he can try Hollywood.

If boxing isn't exciting enough it's up to the governing bodies to change the rules to make it more exciting. Rigo and Lara aren't wearing loaded gloves like Margarito, they aren't take peds like Toney and others have, they were professionally going about their business in accordance with the rules laid down by the governing bodies. A boss has no grounds for reprimanding an employee for pissing on his desk when the rules state that pissing on your desk is permitted.

I agree with the first part. If Floyd is a genius at anything, however, and he isn't, it's matchmaking. I will give credit for fighting Canelo, though. I never thought he would take that kind of risk.

 

This beats watching W.Klitchko judo throwing his opponents .

But hey that got more views right !

 

The other thing worth noting here is, and I am sure I am pretty typical of viewers these days, most fans will tape both fight cards from beginning to end. So, for a guy like me, I tape the whole thing, both of them. So how do they get real numbers? If I've taped it they think I have watched the whole thing when, in fact, many times I do not because of fight is unappealing.

 

Professional boxers are entertainer. They aren't doing this for free and are asking for a huge sum of money to do it. No one is saying a boxer can or can't fight the way he wants but the will be paid according to how many people he can draw to his fight. Just winning doesn't mean anything at the professional level. it is how you win and it is who you fought.

 

Rigo and Wlad are in two entirely different situations when it comes to economic power and track record, as are Rigo and Floyd (another guy I've seen brought up in this thread). Floyd's got nearly as many knockouts in title fights as Rigo has wins in his pro career, and Wlad's got more.

Here's the thing people seem to forget because of their longevity: Floyd and Wlad weren't always "boring" or "ugly" fighters. They waited until they were already big, established names to do it. On the way up, they took chances. They took risks. They built their names. Now, they can afford to win ugly,win boring, or play it safe. They're still headlining stars.

If you fight that way from day one, like Rigo (and to a lesser extent, Ward), you're not going to attract nearly as many new fans. That hurts his career because he's not a headlining, established star. Rigo's an exceptionally talented fighter, but career-wise, he's not close to Wlad or Floyd, and it's not that there's some hidden vendetta to stop him from getting there.

It's because he either doesn't know how or want to build his fanbase. He had a chance to make a statement by being the first man to stop Agbeko, and didn't want it.

 

When Vitali Klitschko fought Arreola, it was HBO's highest rated fight of the year. When Vitali Klitschko fought Kirk Johnson at Madison Square Garden, New York, New York USA it was sold out during a huge snow storm. Vitali knocked Johnson out in the second round after Teddy Atlas said that Johnson would knock Vitali out with one punch. Larry Merchant: "The whale has been harpooned."

Atlas was so very upset! LOL!

 

The upcoming HBO telecasts will likely have better ratings:

Jan 18: Bute-Pascal, Alvarez-Oosthuizen

Jan 25: Garcia-Burgos, Szpilka-Jennings

 

Well said.

 

This is a good point. The rating is registered when you watch the recording since DVR boxes also track all your recording/viewing activity. Nielsen offers a few different "Live plus" options for the industry (like if you watch the recording later that day and the next, within 3 days, etc) which track all viewership within that specific time period to account for DVR's.

Clearly, with the quick turnaround, this must either be the live numbers or the one that tracks who watched the fight live, that day, and the next. There's a chance they used the Live + three days. I'm guessing that, even if we're not going to see all the Live + numbers, HBO's got them so they can properly account for anyone who recorded the main event and waited to watch. Hope this helps. :good

 

Being entertaining is fine and has a large plaace in boxing. But at the highest level it's a sport first and foremost. When it ceases to be I will stop following boxing. For this reason I find it especially refreshing that there are boxers like Mayweather, Ward, Rigo, Bradley and Wlad.

 

Rigo is obviously a extreme talent but he is too negative. He has the tools to get guys out of there but he just ****s about on the back foot, its annoying.

 

BS about it being a sport first. As soon as "high level" fights aren't PPV then you can say it is a sports first. You can't even watch a Mayweather fight (or Klits, Pac, Cotto, etc...) unless you are willing to shell out 64.95, so don't give me this load of crap about it being a sport first and foremost. It hasn't been for decades. You might as well stop watching now. Most of the times these PPV don't even live up to hype or pair two evenly match guys.

 

:rofl

Yet Rigo puts on 'schoolings' that nobody wants to watch. Fat Dan said we have probably seen the last of Rigo on HBO unless he fights Loma.

 

I think this was intentional by HBO/Arum.

You take a tiny foreign guy with no fans, put him in with another tiny foreign guy with no fans who has zero chance to win, and make it a main event. Then you stack the card with a shitty first fight and a can't miss second fight (which should have been the main event). And if that isn't bad enough, you do it on a night where Showtime has a stacked card full of bouts which draw from ethnic fanbases. It was either a really poor decision or a direct shot at Rigo.

I'd say that this combined with the stuff Arum has said about him should probably be legal grounds for Rigo jumping ship to Golden Boy, which you know he's going to do next year anyway after the Lomachenko fight. There's literally nobody good for him to fight.