Comments Thread For: Merchant Agrees With HBO For Rejecting Rigondeaux

[vacon04]

HBO, Showtime etc could care less over the die hard fans. They know we will show up to watch regardless. The ones they are aiming for his the casuals. The ones who pop on, and hopefully will stay on to watch the rest of the broadcast.

Is Rigo the most boring fighter out there? Far From it. He does not have the style that makes great entertaining fights though. We appreciate what he does, but the casuals will not. But there is more to it than just that. He also cannot speak a word of English and for the most part, Cubans do not have enough numbers Stateside to alter the ratings. Personally I think that is the only thing keeping Ward on the show, as Rigo is far more pleasing to watch fight as far as I am concerned.

It comes down to business and also how much Rigo wants to get paid. He may want a Million per fight now, but if he does not have the buzz, who can justify paying him that much?

Look at all the Buzz certain fighters create and who doesn't. The networks will understandably chase after those who are eye catching. lately we see it building with Golovkin and now we see it with Crawford. Certain fighters gather buzz themselves and others who don't, need a management team who can try to create that buzz for them. Rigo's team is useless. His management team is dead quiet unless they want another fight date. Sometimes you just need to put in extra work.

Crawford is very boring and we still have to see guys like Alexander, the same Ward and some others who are incredibly boring.

At least with Rigo you get to see knockdowns and knockouts, with guys like Alexander all you see is a guy screaming while slapping his opponent.

[Frank Ducketts]

All these red k posters coming with hate for Larry Merchant, but Merchant actually put his view across very well and he told it how it is.

This is professional boxing, prize fighting - people are paying to watch so there is a need to entertain.

If you don't entertain, people won't pay to watch. Simple.

This reads so phony, lmao!

[deanrw]

Crawford is very boring and we still have to see guys like Alexander, the same Ward and some others who are incredibly boring.

At least with Rigo you get to see knockdowns and knockouts, with guys like Alexander all you see is a guy screaming while slapping his opponent.

Crawford is far from boring. Beautiful punches and fights on the front foot for the most part. Calm and Calculating. He is going to be formidable.

[Juan,000,000]

Lol... Its called boxing n rigo is 1 of the best at it. He fought a very good fighter in donaire. He cant k.o every1. He will k.o darchinian, Vazquez, mathebula, arce however.... Rigo> any 126 130 fighter.

[LADIV]

Absolutely man, this is why he has no endorsements. Hes a liability to whoever uses his image. Same with Aaron Hernadez and how all his endorsements dropped him.

dont mix being accused of murder with being boring two separate topics homey

[parrish duke]

Mr. Merchant sounds senile ! This is what kills boxing. You have to have variety, balance. show the depth of the sport! Merchant has been involved in the fight game for decades ! WTF is he saying? You need the Ward's, the Mayweathers, the Mathyeese's, the GGG etc.. styles make fights - listen to Jim Lampley give an interview to Floyd Mayweather after he fought Cotto ! He was amazed at the adjustments Mayweather made. To say Ward is boring is of opinion - everyone on here will agree he is the best at 168 and a p4p fighter ! its more bandwagon hate than genuine. This is how you kill the sport along with the wack ass judging we have been subjected to. He better not ever mention a willie pep, or a pernel whitaker, or wifredo Benetez. These guys where master defensive technicians and we all know the saying "defense wins championships! boxing is as much of an art form as it is a sport! It takes sooo many years to develop your craft ! people on here really need to wake up and defend the sport instead of just agreeing to what this drunk post fight mumbling off the topic bastard is saying! Merchant has Juice and let him and the others change the landscape of our beloved sport and all of us will be sorry !!!

[periks19]

Right, but no one's in the business of losing money for the sake of it.



Come on, Broner and Paulie sold and promoted that fight very well.

Regardless, in Pacquiao and Cotto HBO still have the second and fourth biggest draws in the sport and they're testing the waters in China this Autumn.

It's too early to say whether their split with GBP was a good business decision.

All i know is showtime has been having good ratings and te best cards of the year

[joesaiditstrue]

Apparently some the peeps on here don't know how important profit is to business

apparently you wouldn't know a double standard if one slapped you in the mouth and called you Susan

[iloveboxing2]

Some hard core boxing fans just couldn't differentiate Professional boxing from Amateur boxing...unless they don't know what "Professional" means. Rigo is a great fighters unfortunately, "fan boys" are the ones the keeps HBO boxing on air. Larry is right about his restaurant analogy, sad to say. Hey, there's always Showtime and ESPN.

[periks19]

Its already paying off. The highest rated boxing event of the year so far is Broner vs Paulie. A fight with little to no hype that most fans saw as a cherry pick fight. Showtimes doing it with 5 million less subscribers. While HBO is signing old shot fighters like Cotto to try and stop the bleeding. And the fighters they do have like GGG, Sergio, and Marquez are already a little long in the tooth. Showtime has the brighter future for sure.

Highwst ratings on showtime was Canelo bs Trout don't spread lies. Broner little to no Hype?????? Broner and paulie sured hyped that fight up very good