BoxRec

The Eubank thread got me thinking about terrestrial prime time boxing again. I know Sky has made a few fighters rich, but there is nothing like the buzz of every man and his dog talking about a 'big' fight. I had my mom, dad, & sister asking me how they could watch the Eubank fight, but non of them would pay £10 for it. With their respective partners, that was 5 viewers who watched the stream. That tells me it's a broken system. Surely it's about getting as many eyes watching as opposed to making as much money as possible. The ad revenue works for Simon Cowel etc. The more famous you are, the more money comes your way generally right?

If ITV was to stick a show on after The Voice, which in itself is averaging 5.5million viewers, with the same number again watching that Gary Barlow crap on the BBC. How many million viewers would be needed to make a 'Eubank size' main event viable, with maybe a half decent support fight ala Price vs Hammer, which was actually a 50/50 fight.

I know this would never happen due to who they are promoted by, but for example a Whyte v Chisora 2, or a Saunders vs Eubank 2, would make them all household names in the UK, and I reckon would do 10 million + with the right promotion. This generation would look at them how we looked at Eubank v Benn on ITV.

Fury would do very well to get his next fight on 9/10pm on ITV if they'd have him. He'd break all records I reckon. Add a bit of daft singing and a decent humble interview at the end and he'd defeat the media and have the UK on side again.

I don't actually think it is as many as you think. In fact, i don't think it would even be ITV demanding that this was PPV.

Fighters want to be ppv fighters because they want to be rich fighters, immediately. They see the money Hatton made, they see the figures Mayweather makes and a couple of big events do and think that this is a general show of support for boxing. What they fail to grasp is the graft that Hatton/Mayweather etc put into their training and into building a rapport with their fanbase (Mayweather might have an anti-fanbase) and that it wasn't an overnight success.

With Eubank jnr, i think this was all about trying to get himself a stronger negotiating position for domestic fights which will allow him to avoid certain fights as he can price himself out of these fights as he is a 'PPV star' and 'World Champion'.