Comments Thread For: Beterbiev-Smith Main Event Drew Average Audience Of 912,000 Viewers On ESPN

[Oldskoolg]

Just goes to show the star power of Stevenson and Haney alike.

[jaded]

Agreed.

Except it's Bob Arum that's blocking this from happening. He's already on record saying that Bivol is boring and has no pizzazz.

Arum has an exclusive contractual commitment to air all of his fights on ESPN...nothing he can do about it.

[landotter]

Good, but not great numbers. Outperforming the supposed to be more popular UFC card ahead of it is a bonus. But when there was no playoff games or other major sports going on, the Stanley Cup Playoffs unfortunately don't pull anything as far as ratings, I would have like to seen a little better of an average.

[ShoulderRoll]

Arum has an exclusive contractual commitment to air all of his fights on ESPN...nothing he can do about it.

He could always do a joint PPV.

All that these exclusive network deals seem to do is keep the best from fighting the best. The Ali Act should be modified to say that the highest purse offer for a fight overrides any exclusive contracts.

If Arum doesn't want to pay too much for Beterbiev vs Bivol then he should get out of the way in the event that someone wants to pay more.

[jaded]

He could always do a joint PPV.

All that these exclusive network deals seem to do is keep the best from fighting the best. The Ali Act should be modified to say that the highest purse offer for a fight overrides any exclusive contracts.

If Arum doesn't want to pay too much for Beterbiev vs Bivol then he should get out of the way in the event that someone wants to pay more.

A joint PPV is possible, I guess... but that would be something that takes time to negotiate (remember Pac vs Mayweather). In any event, he's probably marinating this (again like Pac vs Mayweather) to sell the sizzle, which is what promotors do. I'm not sure how difficult it would be for Hearn to negotiate a one off event away from DAZN. Maybe they could negotiate a 2 fight deal and have one on each platform. It's obviously a more complicated fight to make, but I don't know why people keep saying it's Arum's fault...a contract is a contract. I think it will happen in due time, and be an even bigger event when it does as a result of the wait.

Don't get me wrong, it's the number one fight I want to see in the foreseeable future, but it is what it is (complicated).

[Coachcody]

Why the h*ll do these main events start at midnight????

[KTFOKING]

He could always do a joint PPV.

All that these exclusive network deals seem to do is keep the best from fighting the best. The Ali Act should be modified to say that the highest purse offer for a fight overrides any exclusive contracts.

If Arum doesn't want to pay too much for Beterbiev vs Bivol then he should get out of the way in the event that someone wants to pay more.

Joint PPV that will generate like 50k buys? Absolutely not lol. One is just going to have to go over to the other side to make the fight happen. Bivol doesn't have a long-term deal with DAZN and after the Canelo rematch he could potentially go to ESPN to make the undisputed showdown.

[Albanianboxing]

Beterbiev vs Smith was the #1 program on cable and did great in the 18-30 demographic. Beterbiev vs Smith did much better ratings than ufc telecast.

[_original_]

That’s good considering neither guy was really doing ratings or had much push.

I think Beterbiev has a huge buzz now AFTER the fight, I’ve seen a lot of talk now with the demolition job he did against Smith. I’m willing to bet he does big numbers in his fight even if it’s not Bivol.

[paulf]

A joint PPV is out of the question - these companies employ analysts who will run the numbers on doing a PPV between two Russian fighters with virtually zero fanbases in the US and probably determine it does less than 80k.

The fight not happening is a tragedy but blaming Arum or Hearn in this instance is not fair or realistic.

HBO fell asleep at the wheel - when they woke up they held none of the cards. DAZN and PBC have been batting to become the major league of boxing in HBO's place, and so far both have failed to establish that.

What we essentially have now is boxing is split into different leagues like UFC, Bellator, and One Championship, but less organized because there is no defacto major league.

This is why the WBC started that franchise championship bull**** - two major promoters had blue chip fighters in the same weight class, and the stakes were too high for each to let their guy fight on the other's network. Everyone's adjusting to the situation on the ground - some better than others.

****ing Ross Greenburg and Kerry Davis. This is who we should be mad it. They ****ed up everything. It's easy to blame Haymon, but if Greenburg and Davis weren't ****ing suckers it never would have happened that way.

Rant over.