Is this influx of money ruining boxing?

[stujones]

Just on the news of Carl Frampton's next opponent has got me thinking.

Has the influx of money (particularly from online / stateside streaming services) ruining the sport.

So far in the last year or so we've had.

Canelo sign a huge money deal with DAZN - he fights Rocky Fielding in a gimmie (okay his next fight was a much tougher ask).
GGG signs a jaw dropping deal for a fighter in his mid / late 30s with DAZN - first fight is against someone called Steve Rolls.... a fighters so poor that no UK TV picked it up.
AJ - scheduled to face a relative gimmie (on paper) vs Miller and then faces a "definate" Gimmie in Ruiz - okay it went wrong but no boxing fan was legitimately hyped for it.
Fury - fights a guy no one has heard of who ex Arsenal Midfielder Steffan Schwartz probably could have beaten - 1st fight after signing a draw dropping deal with ESPN.
Wilder - signs a big deal with Showtime..... has two "okay" fights to start, acceptable yes but hardly ones where he is favoured to lose.
Frampton - a fighter who was very very close to retiring, then said he would only fight in a world title - all of a sudden gets turned by the green notes in a completely jaw dropping deal and goes back on what he says and fights a tune up.

Is it cos of the money that is being on offered that the networks are thinking "shit what happens if our cash cow loses" - we better play safe. They are competing with each other so hard to get these signatures, that they are paying way over the odds and then they are thinking safety first after they get their man to sign on the dotted line.

I know it is a very different model and it is much smaller scale - but I cannot help but think of Setanta (and allegedly) - they got these big fights, probably paid over the odds to secure the rights and the bubble burst. What will happen if the bubble bursts - surely Fury vs Schwartz did not draw big numbers.

[Onetimeonly]

Money and promoters not having to work for it squashed boxing here ages ago, hopefully you don't suffer the same fate.

[JimStone]

The mugs 'investing' in DAZN and ESPN at the moment are deservedly having their pockets picked. Not one of them can have done even the slightest bit of serious research into how they will ever get a return. Fighters and promoters are right to fill their boots. For the spectator, it's shyte though.

[Onetimeonly]

ESPN has a lot of other sports to build on. Including the UFC ppvs every month. They should get at least 700k buys this weekend.

[MasterG]

I dont think money is ruining boxing its the governing bodies that are doing that by trying to cash in more by making new belts.

There are so many belts on offer that its not just confusing its destroying the whole concept of the once famous saying 'world champion'

The latest belt 'franchise' is making the sport a mockery really and the bodies are purely trying and succeeding to cash in on the money available through tv rights such as ppv.

It wont be long before there is a belt for a debutant v debutant as it seems there is a belt for almost everything else.

Lets not forget though the bodies arent really interested in the sport and dont give a eff about how many belts they through out, its all money to them and thats the way it will always be.

[SAPFO]

Take out the promoters, and make all boxers free agents.

Then the network just needs to own a venue for TV. Don’t have to be huge, as not every fight is huge. The money is in the streaming. Think of it as a TV studio without the pressure of filling the venue, but if needed maybe it could accommodate a few k.

[SAPFO]

Instead of the politics of filling a card. 2 men who don’t sell but are decent level can just have it in the boxing studio.

[Nondescript]

ESPN has a lot of other sports to build on. Including the UFC ppvs every month. They should get at least 700k buys this weekend.

Disney is such a huge entity aswell that I don't think they would even care that much if they lost money on the UFC. For them it was just about adding the premiere MMA promotion to their already huge portfolio of sports.

[KiwiRider]

Keep em lean, keep em mean.
Make them take the big fights by making them chase the money
Big fights = Big money
Bullsh*t fights = Bullsh*t money

Fixed it

[Nightmare Roy]

Good luck to the fighters I say, it’s a shitty sport that won’t look after you once you’re finished. Take it whilst it’s there because it won’t be for long, the money on offer now is just fcuking daft, I can remember not too long ago fighters getting £10k for defending British titles and that when the title meant something and it was on prime time TV.

[Andrew]

It's crystal clear they are ruining it in the UK.

Only have to look at how bad Sky cards are now.

But in the flip side it can help cross promotional fights happen, eg Hooker v Ramirez. Also Saunders did sign to fight Andrade.

Not sure how sustainable it is though.

[black panther]

The sanctioning buggers are a big problem. Imagine : one world champ per division. After that only European, Asian and National champions.

World. European. Asian. National. They are the only belts available and the only route to a world title shot. No fiddling your way to a title shot avoiding the best fighters in your country using some “international” belt.

It would clear a lot of the mess up. Warrington- Galahad would have been a British title fight along with Frampton in the mix.

Would make National titles so much more valuable. Everyone in the country would know who the British heavyweight champion was.

I’m just dreaming of the day a billionaire buys up all the sanctioning bodies and amalgamates them into one, copyrighting their former names so they can’t ever be used again.

Won’t happen but I can dream.,

[Chris W 1982]

The DAZN deal has effectively increased every fighter's worth who appears on it.

Look at Callum Johnson. Fighting on Matchroom undercards for relatively small purses and then likely moves into the six figure zone against Beterbiev and Monaghan.

What's his motivation to return to Sky and fight for purses he's no longer accustomed to?

[Flump]

The sanctioning buggers are a big problem. Imagine : one world champ per division. After that only European, Asian and National champions.

World. European. Asian. National. They are the only belts available and the only route to a world title shot. No fiddling your way to a title shot avoiding the best fighters in your country using some “international” belt.

It would clear a lot of the mess up. Warrington- Galahad would have been a British title fight along with Frampton in the mix.

Would make National titles so much more valuable. Everyone in the country would know who the British heavyweight champion was.

I’m just dreaming of the day a billionaire buys up all the sanctioning bodies and amalgamates them into one, copyrighting their former names so they can’t ever be used again.

Won’t happen but I can dream.,

I dream of that too mate. In fact, given that he has some history in the sport, how about the Donald does something decent and ban these organisations in the USA until they remove these nonsense titles and have a mandated unification within a specified time period.

Oh well, we can dream!

[Khaosai-Galaxy]

The mugs 'investing' in DAZN and ESPN at the moment are deservedly having their pockets picked. Not one of them can have done even the slightest bit of serious research into how they will ever get a return. Fighters and promoters are right to fill their boots. For the spectator, it's shyte though.

Not so! DAZN are ahead of their predictions at this point. Something like double the subscribers where they thought they would be.

I thought they were overpaying for content, but not sure now.

[Nondescript]

The mugs 'investing' in DAZN and ESPN at the moment are deservedly having their pockets picked. Not one of them can have done even the slightest bit of serious research into how they will ever get a return. Fighters and promoters are right to fill their boots. For the spectator, it's shyte though.

Not so! DAZN are ahead of their predictions at this point. Something like double the subscribers where they thought they would be.

I thought they were overpaying for content, but not sure now.

Is there any actual evidence for that though? They don't release their numbers do they?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Not so! DAZN are ahead of their predictions at this point. Something like double the subscribers where they thought they would be.

I thought they were overpaying for content, but not sure now.

Is there any actual evidence for that though? They don't release their numbers do they?

Surely if there numbers were good, they would release them.

[Nondescript]

Is there any actual evidence for that though? They don't release their numbers do they?

Surely if there numbers were good, they would release them.

Yeah that's my thoughts on it aswell.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Surely if there numbers were good, they would release them.

Yeah that's my thoughts on it aswell.

HBO and Showtime used to love showing off their 1 million plus PPV buys. Even ones that just ‘did well’..