BoxRec

Benn-Eubank II, Bruno-Tyson II and Lewis-Tyson didn't have the ammount of tabloid coverage that this fight had going in.

You need Eubank's truck or Man City's entire football squad (at every level) to carry all their belts and accolades, amateur and pro, and both were undefeated with real chalk and cheese culture difference. You had around 50,000 Brits in Vegas, and probably 5million watching the PPV broadcast up and down the country - another 5million in the States. Plus you had telephone numbers for purses.

Was it bigger than Ali-Foreman?

Oh and Hatton was on Sky Sports News about 50 different times in the build-up to the fight - that's just insane.

You had everyone from Beckham to Tiger Woods in attendance.

No,it wasn't. Floyd's fights with Judah and Hoya were bigger in America. In Britain,Prince Naseem's fights on ITV had more casual fans and non-fans -just lads and blokes- talking than this.

I admit though it was a big fight,but Mayweather never had celebs at his fights before the Hoya fight other than rap stars and some NHL players. Mayweather growing over there this year was purely down to Hoya. And Hatton growing over here this year was purely down to Wayne Rooney!

Bigger than Ali Foreman

STP wrote:Benn-Eubank II, Bruno-Tyson II and Lewis-Tyson didn't have the ammount of tabloid coverage that this fight had going in.

You need Eubank's truck or Man City's entire football squad (at every level) to carry all their belts and accolades, amateur and pro, and both were undefeated with real chalk and cheese culture difference. You had around 50,000 Brits in Vegas, and probably 5million watching the PPV broadcast up and down the country - another 5million in the States. Plus you had telephone numbers for purses.

Was it bigger than Ali-Foreman?

Is STP an anagram of stupid?

I think the biggest fights ever have to deliver on the hype as well and that fight didn't. Cortez broke up the flow early, Hatton was out of it after the half way mark and didn't really look like winning.

STP wrote:Was it bigger than Ali-Foreman?

In what sense?

i've never experienced anything like that, to be honest.. at the start of the year who'd have dreamed that Hatton-Mayweather would be so massive..?? Who'd have expected both Mayweather and Hatton to suddenly go BOOOM like they did this year.. on Friday everyone at work was talking about 'the fight' coming up and these are people who had never even mentioned boxing before in seven years, and yesterday morning were talking about how 'slick and quick the Money guy is'..

Most big fights have big coverages/build ups.

Tyson/Spinks was pretty massive, god knows why, Spinks was well overrated and a massive let down on the night.

Tyson/Bruno 1 for its time, no Sky, 24/7 tv channells was pretty big but so was Bruno's figth with Joe Bugner big!

The Bowe/Holly fights, 1 and 2 where big.

Toney/Jones was big. Loads of them, you could go on all night.

Some unconfirmed rumour that there where 900,000 PPV buys in the UK - If true it's a new record.

It was a big event. Floyd-Judah didn't have as big an atmosphere on the night.

With the hype, the celebs in attendance, Hatton-Floyd seemed to rival Holyfield-Bowe 1 type of buzz. Put Floyd - who has the credentials as the best in the game - in with a popular, blue collar style fighter and you have a big event. Worked with Gatti, then off the back of DLH it worked better with Hatton.

One thing: we're all being a bit hard on Hatton, but if he didn't have that kind of humour and media accessibbility, Floyd wouldn't have mae his killing at the box office. Hatton even showed a sense of humour when distraught in post fight interviews. Personalities are as important as pedigree here. Look at Floyd's decade-long identity crisis. All that skill and no one was too bothered about him for ten years (though you can argue when he got near welter and the more well known opponents that he flourished).

TONY T wrote:Most big fights have big coverages/build ups.

Tyson/Spinks was pretty massive, god knows why, Spinks was well overrated and a massive let down on the night.

Tyson/Bruno 1 for its time, no Sky, 24/7 tv channells was pretty big but so was Bruno's figth with Joe Bugner big!

The Bowe/Holly fights, 1 and 2 where big.

Toney/Jones was big. Loads of them, you could go on all night.

Tyson-Spinks was big because it was basically the Unification final. Spinks was the only man standing between Tyson and all of the Heavyweight titles AND was also the linear champ having twice 'beaten' Larry Holmes. I'd say that's pretty big.

Tyson-Bruno 1 was actually (I think) the first fight on BSKYB.

Toney-Jones wasn't particularly big in the UK.

THE BIGGEST FIGHT EVER ?? I DONT KNOW ABOUT THAT MATE :)

LOUIS/SCHMELING, ALI/FRAZIER, LEONARD/HAGLER, EVERY TYSON FIGHT, ROBINSON/LAMOTTA, AND THEY ALL LIVED UP TO THE HYPE

IN BRITAIN, THAT T.V SIGNING OF THE CONTRACT WITH BENN ND EUBANK REFUSING TO LOOK AT EACHOTHER WAS ABSOLUTE CLASSIC AND IT SEEMS EVERYONE SAW THAT AND JUST COULDN'T WAIT FOR THE FIGHT, EVEN THO NOONE HAD SEEN EUBANK FIGHT BEFORE ( SIMILAR TO MANY NOT REALLY SEEING HATTON OR MAY FIGHT BEFORE, WHO BOUGHT THIS P.P.V)

rumour has it ricky made £20million out of the fight because of his PPV rights, 1.5 MILLION buys in the us & anywhere between 350k - 900k buys on sky....thats alot of PPV's

Twinkle Toes wrote:Some unconfirmed rumour that there where 900,000 PPV buys in the UK - If true it's a new record.

I for one would be astounded if the figure was anywhere near that high. Half that and I'd still raise an eyebrow.

Well it's hardly the most accurate source, but it's what The Sun are claiming:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... 571995.ece

if thats true that means ricky's got £30+ million in the bank..



why carry on boxing?

Goz wrote:Tyson-Bruno 1 was actually (I think) the first fight on BSKYB.

Good memory. Tyson vs Bruno 1 was definitely on BSkyB.