Kovalev on Low PPV: Hardly Anyone Pays To Watch Boring Ward!

[Ruthless-RKO]

Light heavyweight Sergey Kovalev (30-1, 26 KOs) is not going to take the blame for the lower than expected buyrate for his November 2016 showdown with Andre Ward (31-0, 15KOs).

Kovalev vs. Ward was one of the most anticipated fights of the year, and it was marinated for most of the year with both boxers taking two interim-fights to get ready for the fall encounter at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That anticipation did not translate over to people spending money. Coming into the fight, neither boxer had ever headlined a major pay-per-view event.

Regarding the low pay-per-view figure, Kovalev attributes the disappointing number to Ward's lack of dramatics in some of his fights, and the Russian boxer also believes that a lot of his fans expected him to get on the scorecards.

"Yes [the buy rate figure was low], it was only 165 thousand people [who paid]... But everyone [involved with the promotion was] unhappy [about the buy rate], not just me. I think that, probably, more than half the audience [who paid] was due to my work. It was my boxing audience that was drawn to their TVs. In America, there are just as many people who speak Russian as there are Mexicans, and those people support me," Kovalev told Elena Sobol.

"We expected to sell about 300 thousand [pay per view buys]. For Ward, hardly anyone is willing to pay [to watch him], because he is a boring fighter. We also think that a lot of people knew, perhaps, that regardless of outcome of the fight, that I will not be able to win [a decision on the cards]."

[greg]

..I'm missing "both to a different degree" option

[Jip]

nobody wants to watch ward and kovalev should learn better english, the main fault is wards boring persona and boxing style.

but who cares, ward now knows that he aint ready physicly for the top lh's, he wants to retire and i am happy for that.

our focus should now be for 2017 that bert, gvoz, adonis and kovalev dance the dance!!!!

[Ruthless-RKO]

Kovalev drew 1.2 million for Pascal 1 and 1.179 million for Pascal 2.. You can argue Pascal is a decent enough name to help with that figure.

If he's saying half of them ppv buys are due to him, that's around what less than 100,000 still.

Kovalev-Chilemba did 355,000 viewers on HBO, but that aired during the day due to the fight being in Russia.

Kovalev vs. Nadjib Mohammedi  did  1.014 million, which I would say is a good number

Kovalev vs. Hopkins did 1.328 million, which as considered a hit

[boxing_rocks]

I doubt that with such a little promotion Kovalev would sell much more against anybody not named Stevenson.

[montrealsuper]

Correction: Ward wants to FAKE retire so he can duck Kovalev and then fight a series of handpicked patsies - just like the Canelo/Floyd 'carefully protected' business model

[Tony1244]

There was no undercard to speak of.

[Blodhemn]

Careful. If Son of Kovalev reads this, he'll demand Sergey to admit the PPV did huge numbers or else no rematch.

[gilgamesh]

I doubt that with such a little promotion Kovalev would sell much more against anybody not named Stevenson.

He wouldn't sell more against Stevenson either. It's hard to explain the IT factor that it takes to make guys a big draw internationally, but very few fighters have it, and that includes several well respected and admired Champions.

[Bard of Boxrec]

Careful. If Son of Kovalev reads this, he'll demand Sergey to admit the PPV did huge numbers or else no rematch.

lolled

[boxing_rocks]

I doubt that with such a little promotion Kovalev would sell much more against anybody not named Stevenson.

He wouldn't sell more against Stevenson either. It's hard to explain the IT factor that it takes to make guys a big draw internationally, but very few fighters have it, and that includes several well respected and admired Champions.

Stevenson would bring Canadian audience. Ward brings almost nobody.

[gilgamesh]

I doubt that with such a little promotion Kovalev would sell much more against anybody not named Stevenson.

He wouldn't sell more against Stevenson either. It's hard to explain the IT factor that it takes to make guys a big draw internationally, but very few fighters have it, and that includes several well respected and admired Champions.

Stevenson would bring Canadian audience. Ward brings almost nobody.

Yeah it'd go over big in Canada. I still don't think it'd bring in big PPV numbers, but it might do better than Ward vs Kovalev did. Ward's just one of those guys that is talented, but will never be a star. He has ZERO charisma, and is dull as hell to watch in most cases.

[Kalan]

Light heavyweight Sergey Kovalev (30-1, 26 KOs) is not going to take the blame for the lower than expected buyrate for his November 2016 showdown with Andre Ward (31-0, 15KOs).

Kovalev vs. Ward was one of the most anticipated fights of the year, and it was marinated for most of the year with both boxers taking two interim-fights to get ready for the fall encounter at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That anticipation did not translate over to people spending money. Coming into the fight, neither boxer had ever headlined a major pay-per-view event.

Regarding the low pay-per-view figure, Kovalev attributes the disappointing number to Ward's lack of dramatics in some of his fights, and the Russian boxer also believes that a lot of his fans expected him to get on the scorecards.

"Yes [the buy rate figure was low], it was only 165 thousand people [who paid]... But everyone [involved with the promotion was] unhappy [about the buy rate], not just me. I think that, probably, more than half the audience [who paid] was due to my work. It was my boxing audience that was drawn to their TVs. In America, there are just as many people who speak Russian as there are Mexicans, and those people support me," Kovalev told Elena Sobol.

"We expected to sell about 300 thousand [pay per view buys]. For Ward, hardly anyone is willing to pay [to watch him], because he is a boring fighter. We also think that a lot of people knew, perhaps, that regardless of outcome of the fight, that I will not be able to win [a decision on the cards]."

Kovalev-Ward was a good fight action wise.. Kovalev is a tremendous action fighter - Ward is a stinker, but the fight worked.. The decision is what outraged most fans and swore them off Boxing.. The fight wasn't promoted and nobody knew it was happening or how important it was.

The May-Pac "Fight" was awesomely promoted but tepidly fought.. Many people said they dozed off in the middle of it.. Pacquiao landed 1 hard shot, throwing 1 follow up flurry in the 4th round - and stopped cold in the middle of it.. He was done for the night. He said his right rotator cuff was out of commission which is something he hid from the public before making the excuse.. He didn't throw punches, but insisted he won.. 2 billion fans watched that fight worldwide expecting Leonard-Duran 1... They got Ali-Evangelista - except it wasn't as exciting... Ali-Evangelista was on free TV... May-Pac cost 100 bucks and possibly killed PPV for a few years.. Nobody likes to get ripped off.

The fights that would bring Boxing back are Lomachenko-Garcia (MIkey)... Pacquiao-Crawford... Spence-Thurman... Kovalev-Beterbiev... Joshua-Parker... Joshua-Ortiz... Joshua-Haye... Wilder-Povetkin... Russell-Frampton... Russell-Santa Cruz... Russell Selby... Russell-Mares... Golovkin-Alvarez... Brook-Khan... Kovalev-Stevenson... Usyk-Briedis... Lara-Andrade... Gonzalez-Inoue... and any other of dozens of fights that seem logical and exciting matchups that are never made...

Gary Russell is fighting Oscar Escandon... Fans aren't over-the-moon about it---but He had 1 fight in 2015 and 1 fight in 2016 and has to fight somebody... This is the problem: the gap between the fights that could be made -- and the fights that are made ... it's a big one.

[Impractical Poster]

If Kovalev had shown dullness in prior fights, as Ward has, I would be more apt to go for the both option. But, he hasn't. Ward makes exciting fighters look dull and does the same with pretty much every fight he participates in. He has a very defensive offence, and it's very muddy. Not aesthetically pleasing in the least. I understand the purists have an issue with this perception, but the sport is supposed to be a form of entertainment as well. fornicate Ward. He will never have successful PPV numbers....which equates to Ward being a contributing factor to the declination of the sport.

[lazboy]

If Kovalev had shown dullness in prior fights, as Ward has, I would be more apt to go for the both option. But, he hasn't. Ward makes exciting fighters look dull and does the same with pretty much every fight he participates in. He has a very defensive offence, and it's very muddy. Not aesthetically pleasing in the least. I understand the purists have an issue with this perception, but the sport is supposed to be a form of entertainment as well. eff Ward. He will never have successful PPV numbers....which equates to Ward being a contributing factor to the declination of the sport.

I think purists would agree with you. Holding and hiting in the clinch, what ward calls "the trenches" is not what I'd consider traditional boxing. I don't know if I'd label myself a purist, I'm just a fan but I admire nice clean punches not grinding, pushing smother, half push, half punch shots.

[Best Coast]

Kovalev's only big numbers on HBO were vs Hopkins and B-Hop drew a lot more than Sergei did!!

[Evander]

You're part of the problem.