Anthony Joshua not the big name we are led to believe

[mickey1975]

How many would pay to watch those sports? Darts has only ever had one PPV match, I presume it flopped. Audley and Khan were THE stories of consecutive Olympics, front page news, way more coverage than any other medalist and Khan only got silver. At least boxing fans are spread out, like football, and classless. RU and RL are regional, admittedly, much more RL, Cricket is middle class upwards. Boxing, when done right, is huge. Wait for AJ-Fury/Haye, it will be everywhere.

[mickey1975]

And again, I guess we all come from different backgrounds, but nobody has ever mentioned tennis to me either other than hoping Murray gets beat!

[asdfjkl]

TBH I'm not that surprised, has any of you ever heard of Peter Aerts? Remi Bonjaski? Ernesto Hoost? Semmy Schilt? Tyrone Spong? Rico Verhoeven?


Some of them are, or have been, the absolute world top of kickboxing, Tyrone Spong recently started boxing actually after his knee got screwed and he was looking for more money. But as far as I know barely anyone out there knows them.
The only kickboxer they know is Badr Hari, who never won any tournament at all, but he fights on the street and that's why the Maroccan immigrants in Holland like him.

[mickey1975]

Doesn't Rico help out Fury?

[Stuarty]

TBH I'm not that surprised, has any of you ever heard of Peter Aerts? Remi Bonjaski? Ernesto Hoost? Semmy Schilt? Tyrone Spong? Rico Verhoeven?


Some of them are, or have been, the absolute world top of kickboxing, Tyrone Spong recently started boxing actually after his knee got screwed and he was looking for more money. But as far as I know barely anyone out there knows them.
The only kickboxer they know is Badr Hari, who never won any tournament at all, but he fights on the street and that's why the Maroccan immigrants in Holland like him.

Has kickboxing not got more world titles than boxing? There was a fella from my hometown who was a kickboxing multi world champion.

[Supremo]

Always surprises me when people think that the very very limited number of people they know are representative of the wider population and think that they can make generalisations about the full country based on a couple of their pals.

[Boxerbeetle]

Now this is an odd one as the numbers do not lie and he did sell a few hundred thousand PPV in his last fight

Source?

Hearn confirmed Joshua v Whyte sold around 400k on an IFL interview. He never usually confirms numbers, but he was clearly over the moon with those figures so was happy to talk about them.

[Tarkus]

And again, I guess we all come from different backgrounds, but nobody has ever mentioned tennis to me either other than hoping Murray gets beat!

Who you or I talking to is not the issue. Objective viewing numbers exist. There was one stadium fight in boxing the UK in last 25 years (or perhaps twice that time) and everyone is talking about it as a great achievement. RU is filling stadiums every week in numerous cities. The two are not comparable. I dont know what point are you trying to prove.

[tigermoth87]

I find it baffling really why boxing isn't bigger in Britain that it is.

We love winners here, so much so we've made big names out of semi-decent athletes in other sports like Tim Henman just because there was a chance they might have success.

We've got more world champions than any other country, some of which (Fury, Frampton, Degale, Flannagan, McDonnell) are the best/have a strong case for being considered the best in their division and yet other than Joshua, Khan and to a much lesser extent, Fury they're all pretty much unknown.

You'd expect the media to be all over Fury's nuts for beating Wlad but nope... they don't seem too interested. Haye got much more coverage and media exposure yet never became THE #1 guy in the division the way Fury did. There's Terry Flanagan, arguably the best fighter in his division and nobody knows who he is. After his KO over Magdaleno and he solidified himself as the divisions best I'd have expected the media to have Flanagan's shaft so far down their collective throats they'd be tasting semen for months but nope, barely any attention or coverage at all.


There are fighters known by the casuals... Joshua, for some reason Eubank Jr, Khan etc but for the most part, people don't care. Even the casuals who come alive when Joshua fights wouldn't bother with watching say, McDonnell or Selby. Which is a shame really when it could be said we're in the golden age of British boxing.

[mickey1975]

Apart from the select few, the digital age has ensured hardly anyone is truly a household name. In the days of three channels virtually everybody watched the same thing. The likes of Fatima Whitbread and Dennis Taylor were major stars.

[Ricky_]

Now this is an odd one as the numbers do not lie and he did sell a few hundred thousand PPV in his last fight

Source?

Hearn confirmed Joshua v Whyte sold around 400k on an IFL interview. He never usually confirms numbers, but he was clearly over the moon with those figures so was happy to talk about them.

And is anyone gullible enough to believe him?

Back in a minute, just got an email from Nigeria. Something about an inheritance.

[mickey1975]

And again, I guess we all come from different backgrounds, but nobody has ever mentioned tennis to me either other than hoping Murray gets beat!

Who you or I talking to is not the issue. Objective viewing numbers exist. There was one stadium fight in boxing the UK in last 25 years (or perhaps twice that time) and everyone is talking about it as a great achievement. RU is filling stadiums every week in numerous cities. The two are not comparable. I dont know what point are you trying to prove.

Millwall, Elland Road, Old Trafford, Etihad, Doncaster Rovers, White Hart Lane, Wembley, Millenium Stadium... All in the last 25 years. Meanwhile, in Germany as well as others, football stadiums have been filled countless times by boxing fans who have never even heard of RU. It's a tiny minority commonwealth sport compared to boxing.

[Boxerbeetle]

Source?

Hearn confirmed Joshua v Whyte sold around 400k on an IFL interview. He never usually confirms numbers, but he was clearly over the moon with those figures so was happy to talk about them.

And is anyone gullible enough to believe him?

Back in a minute, just got an email from Nigeria. Something about an inheritance.

Dan Rafael tweeted it out as well. In fact, the figure has been widely quoted across various media streams since the week after the fight, I don't see the need to seek a conspiracy in it.

[asdfjkl]

TBH I'm not that surprised, has any of you ever heard of Peter Aerts? Remi Bonjaski? Ernesto Hoost? Semmy Schilt? Tyrone Spong? Rico Verhoeven?


Some of them are, or have been, the absolute world top of kickboxing, Tyrone Spong recently started boxing actually after his knee got screwed and he was looking for more money. But as far as I know barely anyone out there knows them.
The only kickboxer they know is Badr Hari, who never won any tournament at all, but he fights on the street and that's why the Maroccan immigrants in Holland like him.

Has kickboxing not got more world titles than boxing? There was a fella from my hometown who was a kickboxing multi world champion.

No they don't, maybe weightclasses, the Glory kickboxing heavyweight champion is usually a Dutch person. I wonder what makes you thinking he is?
I must say with that, I don't know much about the lower weightclasses, so perhaps he's a (previous) champion in a lower weightclass.

https://www.glorykickboxing.com/en/fighters/rankings

[Tarkus]

And again, I guess we all come from different backgrounds, but nobody has ever mentioned tennis to me either other than hoping Murray gets beat!

Who you or I talking to is not the issue. Objective viewing numbers exist. There was one stadium fight in boxing the UK in last 25 years (or perhaps twice that time) and everyone is talking about it as a great achievement. RU is filling stadiums every week in numerous cities. The two are not comparable. I dont know what point are you trying to prove.

Millwall, Elland Road, Old Trafford, Etihad, Doncaster Rovers, White Hart Lane, Wembley, Millenium Stadium... All in the last 25 years. Meanwhile, in Germany as well as others, football stadiums have been filled countless times by boxing fans who have never even heard of RU. It's a tiny minority commonwealth sport compared to boxing.

What fight was on Millenium? And how many people attended?

Just last month:

Yesterday
Millenium, 74160, Wales v Italy

March 13
Murrayfield, 67500, Scotland v France

March 12
Twickenham, 81916, England v Wales

February 27
Twickenham, 81826, England v Ireland

February 26
Millennium, 74160, Wales v France

February 13
Millennium, 74160, Wales v Scotland

February 6
Murrayfield, 67144, Scotland v England

It's a tiny minority commonwealth sport compared to boxing.

Complete nonsense. In virtually every country boxing is smaller then rugby. RU is a major sport in Australia, New Zeeland, South Africa, Namibia, UK. Boxing is a minor sport in every Commonwealth country or doesn't exist at all.

[Stuarty]

TBH I'm not that surprised, has any of you ever heard of Peter Aerts? Remi Bonjaski? Ernesto Hoost? Semmy Schilt? Tyrone Spong? Rico Verhoeven?


Some of them are, or have been, the absolute world top of kickboxing, Tyrone Spong recently started boxing actually after his knee got screwed and he was looking for more money. But as far as I know barely anyone out there knows them.
The only kickboxer they know is Badr Hari, who never won any tournament at all, but he fights on the street and that's why the Maroccan immigrants in Holland like him.

Has kickboxing not got more world titles than boxing? There was a fella from my hometown who was a kickboxing multi world champion.

No they don't, maybe weightclasses, the Glory kickboxing heavyweight champion is usually a Dutch person. I wonder what makes you thinking he is?
I must say with that, I don't know much about the lower weightclasses, so perhaps he's a (previous) champion in a lower weightclass.

Not sure to be honest mate. I don't know anything about kickboxing. The guy I was talking about is Lex Easdon. Retired now but I'm sure he won a few world titles. He would've been around middleweight I'd imagine. I don't know if there's different codes or that?

[mickey1975]

What were the global viewing figures for those games? Ticket prices? Any live at 2.30am for US audiences? Is Rugby big in Russia, China, Phillipines?

[Tarkus]

I just checked.

Calzaghe v Manfredo, 7 April 2007, Millennium, 35,000

[mickey1975]

When two names are put together, everyone wants to watch. If the two biggest names in English RU were playing a title decider, nobody would say "let's get the beers in x v x is on". You're either a fan or not. Boxing has millions of casual fans.

[Boxerbeetle]

Who you or I talking to is not the issue. Objective viewing numbers exist. There was one stadium fight in boxing the UK in last 25 years (or perhaps twice that time) and everyone is talking about it as a great achievement. RU is filling stadiums every week in numerous cities. The two are not comparable. I dont know what point are you trying to prove.

Millwall, Elland Road, Old Trafford, Etihad, Doncaster Rovers, White Hart Lane, Wembley, Millenium Stadium... All in the last 25 years. Meanwhile, in Germany as well as others, football stadiums have been filled countless times by boxing fans who have never even heard of RU. It's a tiny minority commonwealth sport compared to boxing.

What fight was on Millenium? And how many people attended?

Just last month:

Yesterday
Millenium, 74160, Wales v Italy

March 13
Murrayfield, 67500, Scotland v France

March 12
Twickenham, 81916, England v Wales

February 27
Twickenham, 81826, England v Ireland

February 26
Millennium, 74160, Wales v France

February 13
Millennium, 74160, Wales v Scotland

February 6
Murrayfield, 67144, Scotland v England

It's a tiny minority commonwealth sport compared to boxing.

Complete nonsense. In virtually every country boxing is smaller then rugby. RU is a major sport in Australia, New Zeeland, South Africa, Namibia, UK. Boxing is a minor sport in every Commonwealth country or doesn't exist at all.

The fixtures you quoted over the last month are all 6 Nations games; it would be pretty disingenuous to suggest that these are typical numbers for rugby matches. I know loads of people who go to 6 Nations games every year but wouldn't dream of going to see a club rugby game; it is the epitome of a 'casual' tournament.

[Tarkus]

What were the global viewing figures for those games? Ticket prices? Any live at 2.30am for US audiences? Is Rugby big in Russia, China, Phillipines?

Discussion was about niche sports in the UK. I have no doubt Rugby has significantly bigger viewing numbers then boxing world wide. One can probably search it. The fact is that there are capacity stadium matches in numerous cities in number of countries around the world. It is not the case in Boxing. Over 10000 attendance is rare in boxing, certainly does not happen every week, not in USA anyways, which supposed to be the Mecca of boxing.

[Tarkus]

The fixtures you quoted over the last month are all 6 Nations games; it would be pretty disingenuous to suggest that these are typical numbers for rugby matches. I know loads of people who go to 6 Nations games every year but wouldn't dream of going to see a club rugby game; it is the epitome of a 'casual' tournament.

Viewing numbers for club matches are typically much smaller but there are lot more of those, every week. There are 15 matches in France, top two leagues. Similar in England. Plus rest of the Europe. Tens of thousands of people attend each of those games. Plus regional leagues with smaller numbers. There is simply no comparison to boxing.

[asdfjkl]

Has kickboxing not got more world titles than boxing? There was a fella from my hometown who was a kickboxing multi world champion.

No they don't, maybe weightclasses, the Glory kickboxing heavyweight champion is usually a Dutch person. I wonder what makes you thinking he is?
I must say with that, I don't know much about the lower weightclasses, so perhaps he's a (previous) champion in a lower weightclass.

Not sure to be honest mate. I don't know anything about kickboxing. The guy I was talking about is Lex Easdon. Retired now but I'm sure he won a few world titles. He would've been around middleweight I'd imagine. I don't know if there's different codes or that?

Oké, I see him in the lower weightclasses when I google him and also from an organisation that I don't know about.

http://www.ikfkickboxing.com/rankmpMR.htm
I recognice some of the names in the list, but most of the names I see are retired, some even many year ago and even the current rank 1 (Rico Verhoeven) is ranked below someone who never won a thing and is currently retired.

They probably don't maintain their website regularly I guess.
Tyson Fury regularly trains in the Netherlands with kickboxers btw, there does exist quite a long interview of Rico Verhoeven talking about Tyson Fury.
Tyson Fury beated him completely in boxing, but he was willing to accept it just to learn how to box.

I have the feeling kickboxers can take a hell of a lot more of a beat compared to most boxers, they simply keep on coming and standing up.
Povetkin and Vitali Klitschko used to be kickboxers in their youth and even Tyrone Spong who became a boxer after his kickboxing carreer has received quite some force on his chin since he really isn't the best boxer out there, but took the beat and won all of his fights anyway.
Even Dillian Whyte received a hell of a lot of punches before he finally went down against Anthony Joshua.

[mickey1975]

The Indian viewing figures for that kid Wazza promotes were bigger than the combined populations of Australia, NZ, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. That's for one man. A novice.

[mickey1975]

I know for a fact we have bigger audiences for white collar charity boxing here than either York Knights Pro RL or York RU get.