HBO is putting some great fights for boxing like Ward vs Kovalev II and GGG vs Canelo which should be huge PPV's fights

[apollo creed]

These are the kind of fights that are making boxing great. Unfortunately FMJ's evil genius strikes again and overshadows with his circus-fight these 2 big fights.

[caldo2025]

The time of the announcement was definitely Floyd's call as it always is and it was definitely strategically done for his network's benefit to overshadow HBO this weekend. But this Ward/Kovalev rematch was not selling as it was and i'm very surprised as to why? I have friends that are casual fans that are excited about this fight and i've had plenty of people reaching to me this week to discuss it but it clearly isn't going to do as much as i think it should in PPV.

[apollo creed]

Both these 2 fights are 'the best vs the best' type of fights. No cherrypicking, bla, bla, bla. TBH , it's not Floyd's fault that is smart, it's the people who buy this con-fight.

[RScarf1]

There is a boxing event in Miami, Florida on the same night tonight as Ward vs. Kovalev II. The event is not on BoxRec yet. I read about it in the newspaper. The main event is Harold Calderon of Honduras (rated No. 314 at welterweight on BoxRec) vs. Wilfrido Buelvas of Colombia (rated No. 296 at super lightweight on BoxRec). That just shows the lack of interest that people have for Ward vs. Kovalev II. The promoters of this event in Miami scheduled their event on the same night as Ward vs. Kovalev II with a main event that is not world-class. Buelvas was knocked out in the first round recently by Regis Prograis and Maurice Hooker. His wins are all in Colombia and he even got knocked out one time in Colombia. When he fights in other countries against better opponents, he loses. Most of Calderon's opponents had losing records. I'm not going to this event, but I'm wondering if they will have a good turnout in spite of the fact that Ward vs. Kovalev II is on. The problem for that fight is it's pay-per-view. They should have put it on HBO or Showtime. I think people in MIami and South Florida which has a large Hispanic population would rather pay to see live boxing and watch Hispanic boxers than pay to watch Ward and Kovalev.

[Enlightened-One]

HBO and Main Events have done very little to promote the Kovalev-Ward fight, hence the lack of interest in this bout from merely casual boxing observers.

HBO have previously released controversial journalic articles about Mayweather and also announced big fights during the fight-week for his bouts. So they shouldn't be surprised about the timing of the announcement of the Mayweather-McGregor fight.

GBP and several HBO analysts boasted that the GGG-Canelo ruined Mayweather's chances of holding the McGregor bout on his traditional Mexican Independence Day date, but this bout is targeting a different demographic of fight fans, since he's not reliant on the Hispanic community to fund the PPV revenue. So the August fight date has no commercial implications... and HBO's boasts are utterly meaningless.

Casual fans would likely use their hard-earnd cash to pay for the Mayweather-McGregor fight, rather than the Canelo-GGG bout.

So I thoroughly expect the GGG-Canelo PPV buyrate to be adversely affected from the Mayweather-McGregor farse.

Going back on topic though, Kathy Duva and fight fans shouldn't blame Showtime and Mayweather if the Kovalev-Ward rematch fails commercially, since they have not exerted much of an effort to publicise their bout.

[RScarf1]

They should not have put it on pay-per-view. It should have been on cable TV. Because of their decision for pay-per-view, people are going to do something else such as in South Florida where they will go see a live boxing event. If Ward and/or Kovalev were Hispanic, then maybe a lot of Hispanics would pay to see it. Ward and Kovalev are both top ten pound for pound, but they do not have the usual popularity of top ten pound for pound boxers. The fact that it is a rematch and both boxers have animosity toward each other has not made much of an impact with pay-per-view sales.

[apollo creed]

PPV is gonna be bad. Ward was smart getting 6 mill. guaranteed purse. If Kovalev wants only PPV's it won't be so much money.