FNF days numbered?

[ReggieDiggs]

Boxing fans know that the sport is in transition, with boxing coming back to primetime, network TV. The swirl of changes has been considerable these last few months, and could get that much headier.  A source reached out to T(he)S(weet)S(cience) on Monday evening, and informed them that the plug was being pulled on ESPN's "Friday Night Fights" sometime this year, maybe as early as May.

We've heard on the grapevine that ESPN might be following suit along with NBC, which is allowing Al Haymon to use their air as a platform for his "Premier Boxing Champions" fare.

I reached out to ESPN to seek comment or verification and a spokesman declined comment.

It would make sense, one supposes, for The World-Wide Leader to cease paying around $60,000 to a promoter to put together a show, and also pony up for tens of thousands of dollars of production costs, when instead they can make a pile of dough on the strength of their brand.

I reached out to another source with deep knowledge of the FNF franchise and that person indicated that a plan is in motion to have FNF cease, with a replacement option being Haymon content, possibly doing a single show per month.

A promoter with multiple decades in the business told me that he believes that "Al is close to making an ESPN deal."

http://www.thesweetscience.com/news/art ... ht-fightsq

[koolkc107]

I hope this isn't true.

But if so, you can bet someone will do programming to fill the void.

[ReggieDiggs]

I hope this isn't true.

But if so, you can bet someone will do programming to fill the void.

Sounds like Al Haymon & PBC.

[Perseus]

FNF has had a long run, I believe this is it's 18th season.
Doesn't sound like espn is getting ridding of boxing, just changing how and probably when they broadcast boxing.
I can't remember espn ever not having a boxing series. I think it was Top Rank boxing before they changed to the FNF format.

[jujigatame]

I wouldn't be surprised at this, FNF seems to have had a serious downturn in card quality over the last year or two, and I bet ratings have waned accordingly.

[TheWigwam]

I love Friday Night Fights and look forward to it every week so this would be a dire shame to me

[handsofstone]

I love Friday Night Fights and look forward to it every week so this would be a dire shame to me

X2 and the thought of not having Teddy ranting at me every Saturday morning fills me with great sadness

[koolkc107]

I love Friday Night Fights and look forward to it every week so this would be a dire shame to me

X2 and the thought of not having Teddy ranting at me every Saturday morning fills me with great sadness

Teddy gets a lot more right than he does wrong.

And even when he is dead wrong he is almost always entertaining.

Hope somebody else gives him a job doing the same thing if FNF goes away.

[handsofstone]

You just can't beat Teddy telling 96% of Facebook viewers after a round that their all wrong

[koolkc107]

You just can't beat Teddy telling 96% of Facebook viewers after a round that their all wrong

LOL! Yup, exactly.

[Impractical Poster]

I started following boxing in the 90's. I miss those times. HBO had something on almost every weekend. We had USA's Tuesday Night Fights, along with ESPN Friday Night Fights. PPV's were pretty regular as well.

[Blodhemn]

That would blow. ESPN2 has been sort of a gateway for fighters who normally wouldn't get the opportunity elsewhere. It won't do better ratings but it won't have to. Haymon has to find some way to keep his fighters active and this looks to be it. Flooding the market with the Haymon brand is eventually going to backfire. The UFC didn't get to the position they're in due to flooding the market that they do now, they just came up at the right time. These boxing shows aren't going to take off.

[Baby Face Finster]

I'd rather have Tuesday Night Fights on the USA network back instead of Friday Night Fights on ESPN. ESPN is always allowing other sports to cut into the boxing telecasts and seems to relegate boxing to the very back in terms of viewing. I don't remember the USA Network pulling any of that crap with their fight schedule. Why should we tolerate a boxing card being postponed to a later time to allow a college baseball game to end?

[punchoutsb]

I wouldn't be surprised at this, FNF seems to have had a serious downturn in card quality over the last year or two, and I bet ratings have waned accordingly.

I can't imagine why when each and every broadcast is littered with Teddy Atlas saying how much every fighter on the card sucks, how much the judges suck, how much the ref sucks, and how he backed down Mike Tyson.

You'd think people would love to see that

[ReggieDiggs]

I wouldn't be surprised at this, FNF seems to have had a serious downturn in card quality over the last year or two, and I bet ratings have waned accordingly.

I can't imagine why when each and every broadcast is littered with Teddy Atlas saying how much every fighter on the card sucks, how much the judges suck, how much the ref sucks, and how he backed down Mike Tyson.

You'd think people would love to see that

Exactly lol. If your approach to hyping an event is the glass half empty strategy you are gonna be seeing a decrease in your budget sooner or later if not a "we're going out of business" sale. I feel like HBO has taken this same strategic approach on a higher level obviously & thats why there boxing budget has been sinking for idk a decade at this point.

It sounds insane to have to say this, but you can't spend so much time sh!tting on the product you are selling & expect people to continue buying it.

[KBB]

Boxing fans know that the sport is in transition, with boxing coming back to primetime, network TV. The swirl of changes has been considerable these last few months, and could get that much headier.  A source reached out to T(he)S(weet)S(cience) on Monday evening, and informed them that the plug was being pulled on ESPN's "Friday Night Fights" sometime this year, maybe as early as May.

We've heard on the grapevine that ESPN might be following suit along with NBC, which is allowing Al Haymon to use their air as a platform for his "Premier Boxing Champions" fare.

I reached out to ESPN to seek comment or verification and a spokesman declined comment.

It would make sense, one supposes, for The World-Wide Leader to cease paying around $60,000 to a promoter to put together a show, and also pony up for tens of thousands of dollars of production costs, when instead they can make a pile of dough on the strength of their brand.

I reached out to another source with deep knowledge of the FNF franchise and that person indicated that a plan is in motion to have FNF cease, with a replacement option being Haymon content, possibly doing a single show per month.

A promoter with multiple decades in the business told me that he believes that "Al is close to making an ESPN deal."

http://www.thesweetscience.com/news/art ... ht-fightsq

I'm not sure why people are having such heartache with what Haymon is doing, in essence he is taking a page out of the Dana White playbook and using it for boxing. Soon many of the best fights we want to see that we probably have to pay for as undercard bouts on a bigtime PPV fight we will be seeing for free.

I hope he does get this deal done, FNF doesn't always have top caliber fights or fighters, at least we know that we are going to get a few up and comers and a few decent/well-known fighters going at it more often than not and for free.

[Blodhemn]

We know we'll get Haymon's fighters in mismatches for the majority of the time. So, instead of being it's own thing, FNF just turns into being another Haymon dump.

[dempseyfire]

I'd rather have Tuesday Night Fights on the USA network back instead of Friday Night Fights on ESPN. ESPN is always allowing other sports to cut into the boxing telecasts and seems to relegate boxing to the very back in terms of viewing. I don't remember the USA Network pulling any of that crap with their fight schedule. Why should we tolerate a boxing card being postponed to a later time to allow a college baseball game to end?

I'd rather have PBR Wednesday Night Fights back as well . . .if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

[Dennis]

We know we'll get Haymon's fighters in mismatches for the majority of the time. So, instead of being it's own thing, FNF just turns into being another Haymon dump.

I disagree. I've seen several Haymon boxers lose while watching the fights live. I also have witnessed the same thing on TV. Top Rank and other promoters wouldn't even test most of their boxers until they had 15 or 20 wins. Haymon is having boxers get challenged fairly early in their careers. Some make the "tests" look like mismatches while others don't. The top prospects won't truly by challenged until they fight for a world title as they are that much better than the majority of boxers in their weight classes. Think Floyd Jr for the first 5 years of his career.

[Blodhemn]

I've seen quite a few Haymon fighters lose in what was supposed to be showcase mismatches. It means that most of them aren't really that good.

[beatdown337]

I would take this hard, except for the fact that Al haymon's espn series will be on Fridays (if im remembering correctly) so we shouldnt miss too much there. Im confident that alot of the up and coming fighters will get a chance to showcase their skills here as quite a few of them will likely join the masses and sign with Al anyway lol. I truly believe this is good for boxing. When I look at the schedule so far for this year, its pretty exciting.

[SenorPipino]

Who the hell is this Al Haymon and how has a guy who is rarely seen or heard from suddenly become the all-powerful godfather of boxing?

I suspect someday all of this is going to blow up on the shadowy Mr. Haymon and those who eagerly associate with him. What happens to him will make the MAPS scandal of the early 80s look like a garden variety bank robbery instead of the multi-million dollar embezzlement scam it was.

Al Haymon, Harold Smith. Are they the same character?

[ReggieDiggs]

Who the hell is this Al Haymon and how has a guy who is rarely seen or heard from suddenly become the all-powerful godfather of boxing?

I suspect someday all of this is going to blow up on the shadowy Mr. Haymon and those who eagerly associate with him. What happens to him will make the MAPS scandal of the early 80s look like a garden variety bank robbery instead of the multi-million dollar embezzlement scam it was.

Al Haymon, Harold Smith. Are they the same character?

Al doesn't like cameras apparently idk lol. I speculate he gots social anxiety or some sort of disorder in that family cuz dude is always creeping behind curtains & sh!t. He's an important guy outside of boxing. He's definitely not shady. He just doesn't like being the face of....well anything it would seem.

Al Haymon bio

Went to Harvard. Got a masters degree.
Got into live entertainment promotion while in college with his first act being a violinist.
Got into concert promotion with MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, New Edition, Whitney Houston, Mary J Blige, Eddie Murphy (Raw tour) among others.
In a USA Today interview in 1992 he said his company grossed $60M.
Started a dozen or so companies from his concert promotion business.
Made lotsa $$$ one would assume.
Sold 60% of his company in 1999 to what is now known as Live Nation (a billion dollar concert company).
Dabbled in TV Producing in the 90's.
Produced close to a dozen TV shows.
Started working with boxers as a hobby starting with Vernon Forrest in 2000.
And here we are today.

Al is no fly by night kinda cat. He's an outside the box kinda thinker though so those guys are usually sh!t upon & demonized til everyone is doing what there doing.

It sounds like all he's doing is taking the risk a promoter usually takes while not being an actual promoter. The speculation is he's hiring promoters on a fight by fight basis & gives them a flat fee. The promoter is cool with this cuz he's guaranteed $$$, which isn't always the case obviously. Besides that he's also taking on the role of a manager with his "advisor" title & taking less from the fighter. Typically a manager gets 33% of a boxers purse. The contracts I've seen involving Al seem to top out at 15% & even then he has a 0% cuts unless a fighter makes a certain amount in some cases (I believe on the Peter Quillin? iirc contract I saw Al only takes 15% on any amount over $1.8M).

So basically Al acts as the investor more than anything else. He outsources promoter duties. Takes less from the fighters. The main upside currently I see is he's basically cutting out the power of promoters, which to me is one of the biggest problems in the sport today outside of the abc orgs, so its a overall good thing. I am sure there will be some issues with this method in the future as there are always issues, but right now this seems a better option for fighters & keeps them out of contracts with promoters that tend to eat up their careers at times (see Mikey Garcia, Julio Jr & Andre recently, and going back further I believe Trinidad & so many other great fighters lost periods of their careers to promoter disputes).