biggest draw in boxing ...

[man]

... right now.


edited after 24 votes in. new
to the list:

pac
wlad
joshua

[crusader]

Canelo

Wlad is probably still a bigger draw than a few of those.

[gilgamesh]

Probably Canelo still. Though the winner of Kovalev vs Ward could go a long way in raising their profile.

With Pac coming back in November I'd say his fight will have more International Interest from casual fans and hardcore fans alike than just about any other fight over the 2nd half of this year. So I guess Pac's still the biggest draw.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Joshua

[Best Coast]

If Pac comes back he will rival or surpass Canelo for biggest draw, especially if he faces Crawford!!

[Lackeos]

Pacquiao is the top draw. Good job leaving him off of the poll.

[boxing_rocks]

Ward? Seriously? And where is Joshua?

[Nightmare Roy]

Right now it's the chicken shit Mexican, I think soon it could be Joshua if he beats Wilder.

[gilgamesh]

Pacquiao's next fight in all likelihood outsells Canelo vs Smith no matter who he faces.

I don't know what the numbers for Pac vs Bradley 3 in comparison to Canelo vs Khan looked like. I'd be interested to know that. I'm sure the numbers are out there by now from those PPV's.

[Best Coast]

Joshua

Large live crowds in UK...let's see how he does internationally on PPVs before we give him too much drawing power.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Joshua

Large live crowds in UK...let's see how he does internationally on PPVs before we give him too much drawing power.

boxing is dead in the states.

[Enlightened-One]

People often forget that boxing is a global sport that is not reliant (commercially) on American PPV buy-rates.

If “drawing interest” is measured by global TV viewing figures and press attention, then Wladimir Klitschko, Tyson Fury, David Haye, Chavez Jr. & Anthony Joshua should be on that list, probably above everyone barring Canelo.

In terms of viewing figures in the US, aren’t more people watching Al Haymon’s PBC guys (i.e. Thurman, Porter, Broner etc.) than those who compete on HBO & Showtime?

Why have most of the people who voted in this poll forgotten about Miguel Cotto & Manny Pacquiao? As far as I know, both will be fighting again before the end of the year, with both consistently attracting several times more PPV views than Golovkin and most of the time more than Canelo also.

[Stuarty]

In terms of popularity it's probably Canelo but if he would grow a pair and face GGG then Golovkin would no doubt overtake him as the biggest draw.

Why is Ward one of the options? Smashing fighter but he's not exactly popular.

I can see Valdez growing and growing in the next few years. Has a very fan friendly style and he'll be in some cracking fights.

[Boxing Prospect]

People often forget that boxing is a global sport that is not reliant (commercially) on American PPV buy-rates.

If “drawing interest” is measured by global TV viewing figures and press attention, then Wladimir Klitschko, Tyson Fury, David Haye, Chavez Jr. & Anthony Joshua should be on that list, probably above everyone barring Canelo.

In terms of viewing figures in the US, aren’t more people watching Al Haymon’s PBC guys (i.e. Thurman, Porter, Broner etc.) than those who compete on HBO & Showtime?

Why have most of the people who voted in this poll forgotten about Miguel Cotto & Manny Pacquiao? As far as I know, both will be fighting again before the end of the year, with both consistently attracting several times more PPV views than Golovkin and most of the time more than Canelo also.

In terms of TV figures PBC do terrible numbers compared to Japanese fighters, more than 6 million watched Wake/Guzman, 8 million tuned into Ioak Vs Lara, apparently 200 million tuned into Jun over the Chinese new year.

[Enlightened-One]

People often forget that boxing is a global sport that is not reliant (commercially) on American PPV buy-rates.

If “drawing interest” is measured by global TV viewing figures and press attention, then Wladimir Klitschko, Tyson Fury, David Haye, Chavez Jr. & Anthony Joshua should be on that list, probably above everyone barring Canelo.

In terms of viewing figures in the US, aren’t more people watching Al Haymon’s PBC guys (i.e. Thurman, Porter, Broner etc.) than those who compete on HBO & Showtime?

Why have most of the people who voted in this poll forgotten about Miguel Cotto & Manny Pacquiao? As far as I know, both will be fighting again before the end of the year, with both consistently attracting several times more PPV views than Golovkin and most of the time more than Canelo also.

In terms of TV figures PBC do terrible numbers compared to Japanese fighters, more than 6 million watched Wake/Guzman, 8 million tuned into Ioak Vs Lara, apparently 200 million tuned into Jun over the Chinese new year.

You’re probably right. I’m no expert on global TV figures.

The point I was making though, is that people measure popularity or drawing power based on US PPV buy-rates and HBO/Showtime cable viewing figures, whereas boxing is a global sport enjoyed by many territories.

Therefore, whilst people assume that Golovkin is a big draw, which he may be in the US, but in global terms, he probably isn’t.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

PBC ratings are often lower than HBO. They get drubbed by figure skating.

[Badhusker]

From what I have read Pac/Bradley 3 was about 4-500K, and according to fat Dan Canelo/Khan was just under 600K. Makes me laugh now thinking back when most criticized Floyd if his numbers dropped below 1 Mil. as a disaster.

[Ricky_]

Ward

Nobody on your list an established PPV fighter.

Pacquaio is, but he's on his way out. If he got a fun opponent, like Broner, he could probably get up somewhere near 1m. Bradley was a tough sell.

Canelo vs GGG is going to do good numbers next year, which will give the winner a real PPV platform. The lack of opponents after that though could prove to be a problem.

[man]

hm. not sure if it makes sense to
add wlad and pac to the list ....

[crusader]

Maybe not if you want to limit the question to fighters who aren't on the way out, but Pac may well still be the biggest draw in the sport, and I'd say globally Wlad is clearly a bigger draw than someone like Ward (and pretty much any other active fighter); in fact, aside from Wlad's 50k attendance and 10m TV figures in Europe, his fight with Jennings in NYC had higher attendance (17, 000) and US TV numbers (1.6m HBO average) than any of Ward's bouts. Wlad might still be the biggest draw in the HW division, although fighters often have their drawing power myopically discredited when they don't usually compete in the US or UK.

[greg]

Maybe not if you want to limit the question to fighters who aren't on the way out, but Pac may well still be the biggest draw in the sport, and I'd say globally Wlad is clearly a bigger draw than someone like Ward (and pretty much any other active fighter); in fact, aside from Wlad's 50k attendance and 10m TV figures in Europe, his fight with Jennings in NYC had higher attendance (17, 000) and US TV numbers (1.6m HBO average) than any of Ward's bouts. Wlad might still be the biggest draw in the HW division, although fighters often have their drawing power myopically discredited when they don't usually compete in the US or UK.

...all good points, sometimes we keep forgetting that boxing is not limited to just 2 albeit important boxing nations...

[man]

Maybe not if you want to limit the question to fighters who aren't on the way out, but Pac may well still be the biggest draw in the sport, and I'd say globally Wlad is clearly a bigger draw than someone like Ward (and pretty much any other active fighter); in fact, aside from Wlad's 50k attendance and 10m TV figures in Europe, his fight with Jennings in NYC had higher attendance (17, 000) and US TV numbers (1.6m HBO average) than any of Ward's bouts. Wlad might still be the biggest draw in the HW division, although fighters often have their drawing power myopically discredited when they don't usually compete in the US or UK.

starting the thread i pretty much
figured that both pac and wlad
are in a way already gone, and
wlad was no real draw to begin
with.

josuha on the other hand seems too
early for me. i think he is the next big
thing, but as of now he is a prospect
in terms of drawing power.

[crusader]

Wlad was absolutely a draw. He's done huge attendance and TV numbers in Europe, and even his US figures outstrip those of many fighters with strong US profiles. Ward, GGG, and Kovalev haven't done 1.6m in the US like Wlad did two fights ago, and the guy leading this poll , Joshua, did around 270k in the US for his last fight if I'm not mistaken.

Just some attendance figures:

-50k or greater multiple times in Germany
-35K in Russia
-22K in Switzerland
-17K in the US

TV:

-On German TV (Germany has about 80m people)--15m for Haye, 12m for Austin, 12m for Rahman, 10.5m for Pulev, and so on.
-1.6m on HBO, just two fights ago, for Jennings, which is higher than the top US viewership figures of GGG, Kovalev, Ward, Fury, and Joshua.

But hey, he doesn't usually fight in the US or UK, so he must not be a draw!

[Badhusker]

I think Canelo without a doubt right now. I hope his fight with Smith isn't PPV, because it won't sell well at all imo. With Pac going out, I see GGG as probably second if he keeps building fans like he has. Of course Joshua will be big in the future, but not yet. If he gets fights against Wlad/Fury winner, or Wilder, etc he will bring big numbers.

[man]

Wlad was absolutely a draw. He's done huge attendance and TV numbers in Europe, and even his US figures outstrip those of many fighters with strong US profiles. Ward, GGG, and Kovalev haven't done 1.6m in the US like Wlad did two fights ago, and the guy leading this poll , Joshua, did around 270k in the US for his last fight if I'm not mistaken.

Just some attendance figures:

-50k or greater multiple times in Germany
-35K in Russia
-22K in Switzerland
-17K in the US

TV:

-On German TV (Germany has about 80m people)--15m for Haye, 12m for Austin, 12m for Rahman, 10.5m for Pulev, and so on.
-1.6m on HBO, just two fights ago, for Jennings, which is higher than the top US viewership figures of GGG, Kovalev, Ward, Fury, and Joshua.

But hey, he doesn't usually fight in the US or UK, so he must not be a draw!

i don't know. i felt the american
audience didn't like his safety first
still at all and after several attempts
had given up on him.

to me the ks didn't make it big in
the US.