PBC to emulate UFC model?

[Impractical Poster]

Personally, I hope this is the case. I understand a lot of people can't stand Haymon ATM, however, if he can get enough fighters in his stable, which he already has a load of top talent, it could be a win win for everyone. It could be a resurgence of boxing. I am very excited about the card that is being presented tonight on NBC. It would be nice to see power taken away from the current governing bodies and be placed in the hands of one supreme organization. It would be a rough start, but in the end, all the top talent will want to be with PBC and the best will face the best on a consistent level. I know it's easier said than done, but now there is hope.

[expe]

Please god, no. The UFC model is horrible and Haymon's a slimy bastard, he's in it for nothing but money, what good has he done for boxing so far?

[Impractical Poster]

Please god, no. The UFC model is horrible and Haymon's a slimy bastard, he's in it for nothing but money, what good has he done for boxing so far?

How is the UFC model horrible? It slays the current climate of boxing. In the UFC, the best consistently fight the best. You cannot price yourself out of a fight or cherry pick opponents. They put on a consistent product. Compare the number of quality UFC cards to the number of quality boxing cards withing the last few years.

[tiny_acres]

Please god, no. The UFC model is horrible and Haymon's a slimy bastard, he's in it for nothing but money, what good has he done for boxing so far?

Yeah unlike all the other promoters and managers who are in it for the love of the sport
Bob Arum is such a saint.Or how about Don King I am sure Oscar also charges more
of a percentage than Haymon because they hate money and are just in this to BETTER the sport.

[jujigatame]

I agree this is what Heymon is going for, but it will be difficult since boxing is so splintered.

I for one love the UFC model where you have nearly all the top fighters under one roof, but even Heymon is going to have trouble replicating that in boxing.

[ReggieDiggs]

he's in it for nothing but money

As opposed to what? Is Bob doing charity work? Does Oscar make sure Rocky Lockridge & all other downtrodden boxers got somewhere to sleep each night?

what good has he done for boxing so far?

Don't gotta go to far for that answer. He gots boxing on national primetime tv for the first time in 30 years tonight.

[ReggieDiggs]

I agree this is what Heymon is going for, but it will be difficult since boxing is so splintered.

I for one love the UFC model where you have nearly all the top fighters under one roof, but even Heymon is going to have trouble replicating that in boxing.

Agree with this.

Idk if thats necessarily Al's ultimate goal though, but I don't got anything to dispute it to be fair.

The UFC model is the best model I've seen combat sports work under. I'd prefer a hybrid of the Japanese Sumo Wrestling model which I think would be great for boxing with their various tiers, but idk that most consider that as a combat sport. In combat sports the UFC cares the most for the fans & giving the best possible product each time out. As a boxing fan I don't know how you couldn't get behind a similar ran outfit.

[expe]

Please god, no. The UFC model is horrible and Haymon's a slimy bastard, he's in it for nothing but money, what good has he done for boxing so far?

Yeah unlike all the other promoters and managers who are in it for the love of the sport
Bob Arum is such a saint.Or how about Don King I am sure Oscar also charges more
of a percentage than Haymon because they hate money and are just in this to BETTER the sport.

They are in it for the money, to a point. Not so much De La Hoya, but Bob Arum is an intelligent man and a very good businessman, in all honesty, he could probably make more money, a lot easier than he does in boxing, De La Hoya isn't, so he has to make his money in boxing, but at least he understands the idea of, if you don't know what you're doing, hire someone that does. They charge a percentage when their fighter fights on another promoters show, standard in most promotional contracts, Haymon charges his fee on top of the official managers fee, because he's the advisor, not the manager, to a lot of his fighters. We've at least seen GB and TR put together some great fights in the past, Haymon can't get on HBO anymore because of his matchmaking and when given an almost exclusive deal with Showtime, he served up a load of shite. He's found a way to make more money by putting top fighters in with bums, instead of each other, good for him and the fighters seem to be well paid, so they're happy, but it isn't good for the paying public.

I don't like the UFC model because it's a monopoly, never a good thing in my book and judging by what their fighters are getting paid, it isn't much good for them either.

[ReggieDiggs]

Haymon can't get on HBO anymore because of his matchmaking and when given an almost exclusive deal with Showtime, he served up a load of shite. He's found a way to make more money by putting top fighters in with bums, instead of each other, good for him and the fighters seem to be well paid, so they're happy, but it isn't good for the paying public.

If this is the case why care? Fans won't watch a product if its not a satisfying product one would assume & with all the boxing fans that have drifted away in the last few decades with Bob & Don & Oscar at the helm idk that Al can do much damage at this point.

I don't like the UFC model because it's a monopoly, never a good thing in my book and judging by what their fighters are getting paid, it isn't much good for them either.

My electric company is a monopoly. I can't go get electric from anyone except from them. I can either have electric thru them or I need to stock up on candles & firewood. Those are my choices. If you're a MMA fighter you can fight in the UFC, Bellator, Jungle fights or a dozen+ other orgs. If the UFC is a monopoly than so are the NBA, the NFL, the NHL, whatever that golf league is called cuz they are doing the same thing. Being awesome at what they do so well that no one else can compete at the top.

[cold187]

well heavy speculation on them having a PBC belt?? enjoy that then haymon fans

[dempseyfire]

I hate the way UFC does broadcasts . . it's like pro wrestling with their frikkin' heavy metal guitars, the horrible announcing, and the shameless hyping of bum fights.

Also, Haymon is never going to magically get a monopoly like UFC (who were able to because domestically they were the first real game in town) has; so his attempt at a UFC style structure will only ensure MORE fights don't get made.

[ReggieDiggs]

I hate the way UFC does broadcasts . . it's like pro wrestling with their frikkin' heavy metal guitars, the horrible announcing, and the shameless hyping of bum fights.

Can't deny I hate the intro music. Its dated & awful.

The announcing is great though. Boxing would do well to have younger guys hyping the sport & being jovial about it rather than old men talking about Floyd's or Adrien's antics like a upset & ashamed dad after their daughters Cancun spring break trip video got released on twitter.

And if you think the UFC is bum fights boxing must be dead guy fights to you cuz the one thing the UFC does better than any combat sports org. is put on high talent guys fighting other high talent guys. I don't see how any org. or promoter puts on more competitive fights. Even the 15th fight on the card is even. Matter of fact Bovada lost a couple million a month or so ago cuz a UFC card had so many upsets on it & there are those crazy $1 8 fight parlay betters that scored huge. Thats how even their cards are, upsets can happen in every fight.

[dempseyfire]

I hate the way UFC does broadcasts . . it's like pro wrestling with their frikkin' heavy metal guitars, the horrible announcing, and the shameless hyping of bum fights.

Can't deny I hate the intro music. Its dated & awful.

The announcing is great though. Boxing would do well to have younger guys hyping the sport & being jovial about it rather than old men talking about Floyd's or Adrien's antics like a upset & ashamed dad after their daughters Cancun spring break trip video got released on twitter.

And if you think the UFC is bum fights boxing must be dead guy fights to you cuz the one thing the UFC does better than any combat sports org. is put on high talent guys fighting other high talent guys. I don't see how any org. or promoter puts on more competitive fights. Even the 15th fight on the card is even. Matter of fact Bovada lost a couple million a month or so ago cuz a UFC card had so many upsets on it & there are those crazy $1 8 fight parlay betters that scored huge. Thats how even their cards are, upsets can happen in every fight.

Yes the matchups by and large are more even/competitive than boxing, but that's more a slag on boxing than touting how great UFC's matchmaking is (especially undercard bouts). I've seen many UFC cards in which each fight was hyped up as a potential FOTY and they all end up sucking. At least in boxing the announcers won't blatantly lie to me saying I'm watching a great matchup when I know I'm not. In other sports you have scores throughout the game so the announcers can't sugarcoat what's going on.

[ReggieDiggs]

Yes the matchups by and large are more even/competitive than boxing, but that's more a slag on boxing than touting how great UFC's matchmaking is (especially undercard bouts). I've seen many UFC cards in which each fight was hyped up as a potential FOTY and they all end up sucking. At least in boxing the announcers won't blatantly lie to me saying I'm watching a great matchup when I know I'm not. In other sports you have scores throughout the game so the announcers can't sugarcoat what's going on.

I think it is the UFC with the great matchmaking, cuz no one else is doing what they are doing. Which combat sports org or promoter is putting on better matched fights? I mean any fight can suck lets be real. You can't do too much about that. But you can throw two evenly matched guys in the ring together & they do that exceptionally well.

And to me if I'm the guy in charge of ESPN Boxing & Teddy Atlas goes on a tirade about how much the fight I just paid $$$ for sucks that mfer will have seen his last check.

I don't understand how you DON'T have to hype what your company is selling or at least not sh!t talk it. You can't go into a McDonalds & the cash register girl is telling you & other customers how sh!tty McDonalds food is & not be shocked to see her on your next visit. In boxing you can sh!t talk the sport all night & its cool.

If some of these cats hadn't been around 50 years I'd assume the UFC has paid off boxing people in power positions to destroy boxing from the inside out with all the negativity like some trojan horse kinda sh!t. I don't know any successful company thats ever been the leader in what its selling that so often tells its product buyers that their product ain't sh!t. Maybe cigs gots boxing beat, but they pretty much made talking sh!t about cigs a law for cig companies. Boxing willingly does it. Crazy.

[davie]

If this PBC can become big enough, bring in all the best boxers and transcend governing bodies. this can work.

That's what UFC effectively did. It became the place where the best go, and where the best fight the best for 1 title.
There are other governing bodies, other MME entities. But when you get to the top in one of them, you invariably end up jumping ship to the UFC, right?
And the razamataz and over-commercialisation aside, the principle of how UFC works...works!

So what does PBC have to do?

Well first it needs it's own title - check.
If PBC effectively takes over boxing this can become the only meaningful world title,
If this doesn't take off as hoped, then Haymon has just added another meaningless ABC belt to the long list and he has further muddied the waters by taking his fighters out of the running for other titles and created a belt that only his own stable can fight for. Will he introduce a further ranking system to the 5 we already have.....

The other thing it needs is all the very top fighters? And I mean all of them!
This is going to be a huge ask. Impossible?? Pobably!
In America alone, it's going to be a huge ask getting some of the top names away from certain promoters/managers and tv deals.
But in time, with the right amount of success, the best could start to gravitate towards this set up, if it becomes big enough and successful enough and corners the market in a way which forces a fighters hand. "If you want to fight the best, you need to join us". It may take a generation but it could be done.

But a further problem lies in getting fighter from abroad on board, fighters with promoters from UK, Germany, Japan, etc etc.
We can see that he already has the likes of Andy Lee and Ricky Burns on his shows, so it can be worked and collaborations can be made with other promoters.
Could he bring in other promotional ties with rival US teams? he may need to for this to work.

Another thing that PBC can do and is doing is bring boxing to the masses with free to view shows.
I was talking on another thread about the impressive viewing figures we get in the UK on free to air channells.
Sky and allegedly have dominated boxing in the UK.
But ITV and Channel 5 have shown in the past how well supported boxing can be and it's a pleasure to have both airing domestic and international bouts.
We need, worldwide, to move away from subscription channells & PPV shows (you guys paying $80 for a show is an outrage).
Lack of access to boxing for the casual fan, is exactly what keeps them casual fans. Fans that know about 3 boxers name and only tune in for the big hype shows.

In short, this project could be the savior of boxing from the political bullshit, promotional lockouts and rival tv deal quagmire that it is currently stuck in.
Or it could just add a further layer of poo to the already mind-boggling mess we have now.
I'm inclined to hope Al Haymon has a masterplan. Because the alternative is to stick with the current system and we all know that that is broken beyond repair.

Boxing need 1 visionary, to sort through the mess, someone with the clout, the contacts, the know how and a masterplan to put it all together
I, perhaps naively, hope that Haymon can be that man

[ReggieDiggs]

But a further problem lies in getting fighter from abroad on board, fighters with promoters from UK, Germany, Japan, etc etc.
We can see that he already has the likes of Andy Lee and Ricky Burns on his shows, so it can be worked and collaborations can be made with other promoters.
Could he bring in other promotional ties with rival US teams? he may need to for this to work.

From my understanding Al Haymon & Eddie Hearn will be working together more in the future. Eddie Hearn is supposedly in the process of getting a promoters license in the US in several states (Nevada, Texas & one or two more states I don't remember which) & I suspect he'll be in that Warrior, Goosen & DiBella role for Al.

I definitely agree he needs to find more guys in more countries to fully implement any UFC sorta game plan. Japan might be lower on the list cuz the first thing that stands out to me looking at Al's roster is he gots like 15 guys 122lbs or under (thats 15 guys in the 6 lowest divisions aka about 1/3 of the divisions) so I don't think he has many lower weight divisions aspirations at the moment thus Japan & the countries more known for lower weight guys would be of less importance.

[davie]

Please god, no. The UFC model is horrible and Haymon's a slimy bastard, he's in it for nothing but money, what good has he done for boxing so far?

this is true. virtually everyone in the same position is.
and they all wanted to corner the market and be the main man

but the difference is, this guy might actually be on to something. The UFC model is the only realistic chance we have of breaking away from the 4 belt, multi-governing body situation we have now.
The governing bodies are never going to sit down and come together as one, every promoter, manager and TV company will fight tooth and nail to hold on to the power they have and exclude others from getting their hands on what they have.

the sport needs one person, with one organisation to take over and that man is inevitably going to be a slimy bastard that is going to become very powerful and wealthy. He's going to have an ego bigger than some states and it'll only get bigger if this model succeeds in taking over boxing

but if it works, then it will do good for boxing, lots of it. whether his motives are personal gain, money and power or not, the outcome will ultimately be good for the sport if it can nullify all the other bodies and organisations and unite boxing under one banner