Al Haymon's Venture ship has started to sink

[Pac=Duran]

Not bad for a 12:00 p.m after noon boxing event, I agree Virgil is okay I just think he needs to talk a little louder, I mean it's not a chess match its almost like he's whispering. Paulie did a great job and so did the other guy, Hunter just needs a little practice and he will get better.

I would far prefer no commentary at all and just the sound of the audience.

[mathed]

I'm enjoying it, particularly during the day because then I can go out at night. Sure the production needs work, but who cares, it's boxing, the other stuff doesn't matter. My only concern is the budget, I think guys are being paid too much which might affect its long term success.

This entire situation puts fans of the sport in a bad spot. I think everyone here likes watching boxing, that is a given. The deal is that in order for this thing to take off, you need money which he has from investors. Also, you need a viable product which only happens if you sell it to the public.

Now, I'm not sure what kind of research had been done prior to all of this but they need to make the sport appealing to potential fans since the idea is to break into a new market. One way to do this is by billing certain fighters as the premier guys of the sport and making sure that they win all their fights in convincing fashion, preferably by KO. This is obviously great but in order to ensure that, you have to match good fighters up with not so good fighters or something along those lines. This puts the "hardcore" fans in a situation where we are forced to watch mismatches but it may be needed to build up fighters for the masses.

Also, as others have mentioned, you might want to have high end production to show the casual observer that this is a quality product, something with backing that is worth taking the time to watch. This feeds into the boxer problem. In order for Haymon to secure talent, he needed to promise them tons of money and they do seem to be getting paid a lot of money to fight for him. The drawback is that paying fighters exorbitant fees means less money for production and commentary which means less appeal for the fans which means potentially lower viewership. So we have an expected lower quality presentation and lower quality of fight already right off the jump that we, as fans of the sport, can look forward to. However, these are just consequences of essentially starting up a new business which as many people probably know are expected to take a loss for the first few years anyways.

But taking a loss in the first few years leads to another issue, investor confidence. Haymon has a guarantee on certain networks for a year or two but what then? What if they don't get the views that they need, are the investors going to loan out additional money? I doubt that is going to happen. What happens when they want their return on investment? What about all the fighters locked into contracts if things don't take off like people hope?

I personally like the "idea" of it all but so far it seems staged to me but it may need to be in order for it to succeed at this point, I don't really know. It doesn't have the same hyped up feeling that fight night on typical Showtime and HBO cards do, I certainly can draw a conclusion there but maybe it will get to that point once money starts coming in. My concern is if it doesn't all work out and then there ends up only being one network to watch boxing and suppose there is a web of legal battles surrounding fighters locked into contracts who can't fight for several years....what happens to boxing then?

[RoyJonesJrp4pno1]

PBC could possible be torn apart by it's own fighters. If fighters start getting pissed off with being kept on the sidelines for months on end they could easily sue for violeations of the Muhammed Ali act.

Well that won't happen. He has a lot of dates to fill.

[arraamis]

Nah, I am just embarrassed as a human being for the trash producing that he is putting forth, it's laughable really

What's laughable is that you have time to criticize someone who is trying to present boxing as a sport to a greater audience.

And just what exactly, are you doing .........

[Xi_]

There are some ****ing idiots on nsb......they'd rather complain about free pbc than other **** fights like ggg-monroe that these same dumbasses will gladly pay for.

[100percentTruth]

You are ****** and you don't know what you want. You will continue to complain but still watch. If there were more commercials you would complain, if there were no commercials you would complain. You will continue to watch. You are ****** and that is why Al Haymon will succeed. This is your life as a consumer.

[lefthook2daliva]

Have no idea wtf the op is whinging about; free tv boxing.

Fkn Championship boxing at that.

Fkn moron.

[Barcham]

There are some ****ing idiots on nsb......they'd rather complain about free pbc than other **** fights like ggg-monroe that these same dumbasses will gladly pay for.

Who is paying for GGG-Monroe? Not me. I don't pay for boxing at all. I have an HBO subscription but I have that because of their regular programming like Game of Thrones which is worth the money all on it's own. Then there is True Detective, and all the other great programming they offer and the fact that I can stream any of their older shows, like The Sopranos, saving me from purchasing the DVD sets, at any time I wish to watch them. The rare Showtime program I enjoy, such as Shameless and Penny Dreadful are included in my TMN package, which happens to include HBO. I would have that package with or without boxing on HBO.

Not to mention that I also get Cravetv tossed in for free which includes tons of programming. And I get all of that for $15/month.

So as far as I am concerned, boxing on HBO is as free as whatever PBC is offering me. In fact some of PBC programming on NBC Sportsnet is not even available to me and for others, such as what is on Spike, I would have to expand my cable package to get that channel. So it would not be free at all.

The only real FREE shows that PBC are offering are those on CBS and NBC. All the rest require a cable package with the specific channels. In other words... not free.

[PACnPBFsuck]

Who is paying for GGG-Monroe? Not me. I don't pay for boxing at all. I have an HBO subscription but I have that because of their regular programming like Game of Thrones which is worth the money all on it's own. Then there is True Detective, and all the other great programming they offer and the fact that I can stream any of their older shows, like The Sopranos, saving me from purchasing the DVD sets, at any time I wish to watch them. The rare Showtime program I enjoy, such as Shameless and Penny Dreadful are included in my TMN package, which happens to include HBO. I would have that package with or without boxing on HBO.

Not to mention that I also get Cravetv tossed in for free which includes tons of programming. And I get all of that for $15/month.

So as far as I am concerned, boxing on HBO is as free as whatever PBC is offering me. In fact some of PBC programming on NBC Sportsnet is not even available to me and for others, such as what is on Spike, I would have to expand my cable package to get that channel. So it would not be free at all.

The only real FREE shows that PBC are offering are those on CBS and NBC. All the rest require a cable package with the specific channels. In other words... not free.

[ShoulderRoll]

Now, I'm not sure what kind of research had been done prior to all of this but they need to make the sport appealing to potential fans since the idea is to break into a new market. One way to do this is by billing certain fighters as the premier guys of the sport and making sure that they win all their fights in convincing fashion, preferably by KO. This is obviously great but in order to ensure that, you have to match good fighters up with not so good fighters or something along those lines. This puts the "hardcore" fans in a situation where we are forced to watch mismatches but it may be needed to build up fighters for the masses.

I'm curious about something. Have you been this vocal on thread after thread about criticizing Golovkin and HBO for accepting Willie Monroe as his next opponent?

If not, why not?