How come RJJ wasn't a PPV star?

[BM dnobagaV]

Always wondered this.
The man had personality, skill, an appealing style, flashy victories, Olympian...


Yet he never became a star on the level of a Tyson or DLH for some reason. Why is this?
Bad marketing maybe or bad promotion, if I had to guess

[The Old LefHook]

He always wanted to do his own promoting. How did that go for him, legacy-wise? Financially, I think he was making about $5 mil per fight on HBO facing alphabet mandatories with little risk. He liked this kind of small operation he could feel in complete control of and like he was not being manipulated, more than he liked the idea risky PPV fights where his grip of control would lessen.

Let's face it man, you can only fight PPV if you are facing dangerous, legitimate threats to your reign. He wasn't.

[QueensburyRules]

--- Raking in $5mil per pop with his own promotions and a steady HBO commentary gig in a division with no American stars while being touted as the best p4p and heavywt fighter of all time, he was making out better than Tyson and Field.

Pretty sure the Ruiz fight was a big PPV fight. Wanted $100mil to defend against Lewis, too much given Lewis was never a big star.

Could've sealed a legacy fight against the record setting Darius, but Roy and HBO snubbed Darius when he showed up at a Roy fight to promote that match.

And no, Roy was a flashy fighter, but had the personality of a dishrag coupled with an ego the size of Mt Everest.

Had he stayed at heavy and defended against the usual subjects, by then he coulda pulled in PPV numbers.

And so what? PPV only means something to young moderns, not legacy or even financial stability.

[Granath]

Had he stayed at heavy and defended against the usual subjects, by then he coulda pulled in PPV numbers.

RJJ was never going to stay at heavy because he knew he couldn't beat the really big HWs. He would have never moved up to HW if say David Tua was champ. When it was the light-hitting Ruiz he knew he stood a chance. He's said so in interviews before.

As for Jones and PPV, it's not that complicated.

1. It wasn't that big of a deal when RJJ was in his prime. PPV in 2006 did a total 3.7m buys. Compare that to the 4.6m who watched Mayweather/Pac. And that was in 2006 - Jones lost his PvP crown in 2004 against Tarver. So it was a smaller market than it is today.

2. Non-HW PPV market was substantially smaller then. Remember that Jones was effectively done in 2004. Up until that time, there was only one PPV (not closed circuit TV) event for a non-heavy that generated a million buys: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Félix Trinidad in 1999. Most of the other fights were getting 400k buys and it was more profitable for him to fight on HBO which was a good deal for both him and the network. Jones/Toney only did 300k views. But there were many HW fights that were over a million views. It was a big man's market.

3. People also have to remember that while he was outstanding many of Jones' fights weren't all that entertaining. He wasn't willing to go for the KO in many cases, content to pile up round after round after round. The lack of excitement in these fights lend themselves to not being PPV fights. Who wants to see Jones go the distance against Lou Del Vafle, Reggie Johnson or David Telesco? I don't think he lost a round in any of those 3 fights but they weren't particularly entertaining. It took someone getting under his skin like Montell Griffin (2) or Vinnie Paz to get Jones going. Hell, against Lucas he played semi-pro basketball the day of the fight. Fights that are lopsided and don't result in quick KOs aren't appealing to the general fight fan.

4. As mentioned previously, he had a great deal with HBO.

[The Old LefHook]

He licked his lips so much he even lost the commentating gigs.

[BM dnobagaV]

He licked his lips so much he even lost the commentating gigs.

He's a very good commentator imo

[The Old LefHook]

He's a very good commentator imo

Yes, not too bad a commentator. But when they have the camera on him he licks his lips three times per sentence. That is a flat no-no in broadcasting. His daddy probably told him, but he wouldn't listen.

[billeau2]

Always wondered this.
The man had personality, skill, an appealing style, flashy victories, Olympian...



Yet he never became a star on the level of a Tyson or DLH for some reason. Why is this?
Bad marketing maybe or bad promotion, if I had to guess

Read the article on Jones written in Sports illustrated, it can be googled. It is comprehensive and very detailed. Basically the short answer is "his father."

[amuroray]

The public saw that he was, for the most part, a cherry picker.

His charisma was lacking aswell.

The man never drew a dime.

[Eff Pandas]

He had some PPV's so just having PPV's in the plural is a good thing to show your a top draw with some crossover appeal.

I think the main thing that kept him from becoming a legit PPV star with multi 1mill buy fights was a lack of quality opponents in his prime that excited fans. I seem to recall the biggest names around 160/168 were UK guys when RJJ was around & thats when UK boxing was more its own lil world vs the worldwide status its at now.

There was no SRL, Duran, Hearns & Hagler for him to fight that woulda exploded him more with the mainstream fans. I think the only 2 guys he fought that mattered around that time as far as mainstream appeal goes, Bhop & Toney, were still young names themselves so they didn't really give RJJ the rub that a Floyd or Manny lifted from Oscar later on.