Tyson Fury gauges public awareness of Wilder

[Lackeos]

Youtube suggested that I would be interested in this 14-minute video of Tyson Fury walking around L.A. asking people if they've heard of Deontay Wilder. I don't know who among you would be interested. To summarize the contents, there were more random cars honking because they recognized Fury than there were people on the sidewalks responding that they'd heard of Wilder.

[tiny_acres]

I think this just proves how much of a fringe sport boxing is now in America.
326 million Americans and probably 5% are boxing fans. 1 out of 20 sounds about right

[Ricky]

Sounds to me american broadcasters & promoters are doing a woeful job of marketing what has always been sports biggest money spinner.

In the UK we have 2 major sports broadcasters, BT & SKY that share the rights to live football, over the last 5 years they've developed a clear marketing strategy of shoving ads for boxing PPVs down the throats of every sports fan tuned in, and it's worked big time - who knew a bunch of football fans getting pissed on a Saturday afternoon would fancy watching a scrap come 10pm?

Even fans of other sports that hate boxing couldn't get away from the exposure of Fury, Joshua, Haye, Bellew (etc) if they tried.

[squiggy]

I think this just proves how much of a fringe sport boxing is now in America.
326 million Americans and probably 5% are boxing fans. 1 out of 20 sounds about right

I think 5% is probably a really high estimate.

[squiggy]

I like Fury more and more all the time.

[tiny_acres]

I think this just proves how much of a fringe sport boxing is now in America.
326 million Americans and probably 5% are boxing fans. 1 out of 20 sounds about right

I think 5% is probably a really high estimate.

And you are probably correct. I was being generous.
I don't think you could walk down the street in America and ask who any of the 10 current p4p fighters and get

much better than 1 out of 20 getting it right.

It's just not popular here

[tiny_acres]

I like Fury more and more all the time.

He's a likeable guy. He's charming. But I just can't see him winning this fight.

[squiggy]

Not counting myself, I think my dad is literally the only person I know who cares about boxing. And he'd much rather rewatch an Ali fight than follow anything going on today.

[Noxy]

Something changed in the US, right? They used to like boxing.

[Mexi-Box]

I think this just proves how much of a fringe sport boxing is now in America.
326 million Americans and probably 5% are boxing fans. 1 out of 20 sounds about right

I think 5% is probably a really high estimate.

Not at all. Boxing isn't a fringe sport. Maybe people who follow it hardcore are rare, but people do watch popular boxers. Mayweather/Pacquioa was one of the biggest fights ever. If boxing was a fringe sport, it would've done awful numbers.

Plus, boxing was doing huge numbers when they were showing big fights on Fox and ESPN.

Thing is that no one wants to pay a ton of money to watch boxing. Paying ~$40/month for Showtime and HBO on top of a cable bill and PPV's. It's too expensive to follow. It does good numbers when they show relevant fighters and it's free.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Boxing is a bigger sport in the UK than it is in a huge USA..

Boxing isn’t even top 5.. you have College Football ranked higher than Boxing in US.

Every State is it’s own little country in the US. Would have gotten more accurate results had he been asking the people of Alabama. And who knows, he might have still gotten some that would say they don’t know.

Half of those people he was asking just looked scared.. they probably so the 3 cameras and his entourage and thought fück this!

[Noxy]

Boxing is a bigger sport in the UK than it is in a huge USA..

Boxing isn’t even top 5.. you have College Football ranked higher than Boxing in US.

Every State is it’s own little country in the US. Would have gotten more accurate results had he been asking the people of Alabama. And who knows, he might have still gotten some that would say they don’t know.

Half of those people he was asking just looked scared.. they probably so the 3 cameras and his entourage and thought fück this!

Take your point about US. The video was shot in LA though and the fight is happening there. You have to wonder whether the promoters have really brought the event to the general public. You‘d think it would be an easy sell. Two very talkative and undefeated giants squaring off for the WBC title.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Boxing is a bigger sport in the UK than it is in a huge USA..

Boxing isn’t even top 5.. you have College Football ranked higher than Boxing in US.

Every State is it’s own little country in the US. Would have gotten more accurate results had he been asking the people of Alabama. And who knows, he might have still gotten some that would say they don’t know.

Half of those people he was asking just looked scared.. they probably so the 3 cameras and his entourage and thought fück this!

Take your point about US. The video was shot in LA though and the fight is happening there. You have to wonder whether the promoters have really brought the event to the general public. You‘d think it would be an easy sell. Two very talkative and undefeated giants squaring off for the WBC title.

LA's population is around 4 million.. He asked how many people?

I do agree with the promotional side though. I haven't walked the streets of LA, but if they had big posters up, posters on the bus stops, side of walls, every corner you turn a billboard of the fight.. People notice these things. They did a few TV appearances, but I think they could have done a lot more. The promotion started off okay, but died down.

In the UK, I was driving up the road, and I saw at least 4 of the 5 bus stops with BT advertising the fight with posters.

[ironbeard]

Tyson Fury is doing his part to promote this fight.

That is a tough sell with all that goes on in LA on a daily basis. I have no idea what the promoters were thinking by doing this in LA. You are competing with every TV show and new movie release for attention there. Billboard space is precious although it is everywhere.

This should have been in Vegas or possibly Atlanta. Vegas is a much better draw of fans from the UK and the East Coast than LA, and Atlanta is a massive city in Georgia (adjacent to Wilder’s home state), with a large African American population.

Another option could have been to go the Bud Crawford route and fight in the largest venue in Alabama. That would take some sac given the largest city in the state is not much more than 200,000, and #1 Alabama Crimson Tide travels to #4 Georgia for a 1pm kickoff this Saturday.

[ironbeard]

Boxing is a bigger sport in the UK than it is in a huge USA..

Boxing isn’t even top 5.. you have College Football ranked higher than Boxing in US.

Every State is it’s own little country in the US. Would have gotten more accurate results had he been asking the people of Alabama. And who knows, he might have still gotten some that would say they don’t know.

Half of those people he was asking just looked scared.. they probably so the 3 cameras and his entourage and thought fück this!

Take your point about US. The video was shot in LA though and the fight is happening there. You have to wonder whether the promoters have really brought the event to the general public. You‘d think it would be an easy sell. Two very talkative and undefeated giants squaring off for the WBC title.

LA's population is around 4 million.. He asked how many people?

The LA metro is closer to 15 million, and that is not counting the entire sea of humanity that should include Orange County and the Inland Empire which pumps it to closer to 20 million.

They needed a big all Mexican co-main to make this happen.

[Onetimeonly]

I think this just proves how much of a fringe sport boxing is now in America.
326 million Americans and probably 5% are boxing fans. 1 out of 20 sounds about right

I'd say less than that by a good bit.

[DrDuke]

This video is amusing. On the other hand, I'm even a bit sad for USA lacking remarkable HW boxers. Through almost the whole history the very best were born there. And what's now? Wilder is a World champ with 40-0 including a solid series of defences and few notable opponents listed.

[jamamb]

lol so many ppl still act like the hws are the huge attraction everywhere, reality is its little mexican and black and fillipino guys for almost the last 2 decades, at least in the usa

although even now, im not sure if a star like canelo really matches the mainstream levels that oscar, floyd, and manny had

[tiny_acres]

lol so many ppl still act like the hws are the huge attraction everywhere, reality is its little mexican and black and fillipino guys for almost the last 2 decades, at least in the usa

although even now, im not sure if a star like canelo really matches the mainstream levels that oscar, floyd, and manny had

Canelo doesn't come close to Oscar, Manny or Floyd.

[KiwiRider]

I kind of feel sorry for Wilder.
Like him or lothe him, he has done his very best ( as an individual) to promote himself. He has been let down by the promotional machine, not his own efforts.
America should be more aware they have a HW champion.
On the flip side, I saw a Jay Leno street questionnaire in LA, and one of the questions was;
"Who is the vice president?"
Wanna guess how many knew the answer?

[DrDuke]

I kind of feel sorry for Wilder.
Like him or lothe him, he has done his very best ( as an individual) to promote himself. He has been let down by the promotional machine, not his own efforts.
America should be more aware they have a HW champion.
On the flip side, I saw a Jay Leno street questionnaire in LA, and one of the questions was;
"Who is the vice president?"
Wanna guess how many knew the answer?

Wilder's promotion has given both good and bad for Deontay, he's a reigning champ now, but his legacy is under question because of the fact, how he reached the top. Sure, he was doing best himself, he is fun to watch in any case.

[KiwiRider]

I kind of feel sorry for Wilder.
Like him or lothe him, he has done his very best ( as an individual) to promote himself. He has been let down by the promotional machine, not his own efforts.
America should be more aware they have a HW champion.
On the flip side, I saw a Jay Leno street questionnaire in LA, and one of the questions was;
"Who is the vice president?"
Wanna guess how many knew the answer?

Wilder's promotion has given both good and bad for Deontay, he's a reigning champ now, but his legacy is under question because of the fact, how he reached the top. Sure, he was doing best himself, he is fun to watch in any case.

Fair point mate.
On the other hand, look at Fury.
His self promotion in the UK has made him more popular and visible during a period of inactivity and then fighting two railyard hobo's in a row
He could sell more tickets now than he could for the Wlad fight.

[DrDuke]

I kind of feel sorry for Wilder.
Like him or lothe him, he has done his very best ( as an individual) to promote himself. He has been let down by the promotional machine, not his own efforts.
America should be more aware they have a HW champion.
On the flip side, I saw a Jay Leno street questionnaire in LA, and one of the questions was;
"Who is the vice president?"
Wanna guess how many knew the answer?

Wilder's promotion has given both good and bad for Deontay, he's a reigning champ now, but his legacy is under question because of the fact, how he reached the top. Sure, he was doing best himself, he is fun to watch in any case.

Fair point mate.
On the other hand, look at Fury.
His self promotion in the UK has made him more popular and visible during a period of inactivity and then fighting two railyard hobo's in a row
He could sell more tickets now than he could for the Wlad fight.

Probably Wlad fight is a kind of a trump card for Fury indeed. Still why not, Fury was able to do, what nobody ever had done. In Wlad fight he dominated Klitschko, nobody did that neither before nor afterwards. Fury did that after Wlad's prolonged reign. Imo, that achievement was bigger, than the whole Wilder's career.

[oogiebe]

Wilder's promotion has given both good and bad for Deontay, he's a reigning champ now, but his legacy is under question because of the fact, how he reached the top. Sure, he was doing best himself, he is fun to watch in any case.

Fair point mate.
On the other hand, look at Fury.
His self promotion in the UK has made him more popular and visible during a period of inactivity and then fighting two railyard hobo's in a row
He could sell more tickets now than he could for the Wlad fight.

Probably Wlad fight is a kind of a trump card for Fury indeed. Still why not, Fury was able to do, what nobody ever had done. In Wlad fight he dominated Klitschko, nobody did that neither before nor afterwards. Fury did that after Wlad's prolonged reign. Imo, that achievement was bigger, than the whole Wilder's career.

I seem to remember Corrie Sanders pretty much dominate Wlad.

[DrDuke]

Fair point mate.
On the other hand, look at Fury.
His self promotion in the UK has made him more popular and visible during a period of inactivity and then fighting two railyard hobo's in a row
He could sell more tickets now than he could for the Wlad fight.

Probably Wlad fight is a kind of a trump card for Fury indeed. Still why not, Fury was able to do, what nobody ever had done. In Wlad fight he dominated Klitschko, nobody did that neither before nor afterwards. Fury did that after Wlad's prolonged reign. Imo, that achievement was bigger, than the whole Wilder's career.

I seem to remember Corrie Sanders pretty much dominate Wlad.

That was a different thing. A quick KO. You can't say, that Wlad was outboxed then. Fury outboxed him in a near-shutout performance.