Network’s Starting To Recognize The Fans Will Show
What a year 2017 has been and let’s give a round of applause to all those who worked endlessly to make that happen. I mean, where do we start? There were fights all over the globe that gained recognition. Some amazing events that took place in England and Eastern Europe to a fights on ESPN which have enjoyed some great cable TV ratings success.
This year we learned one thing to be true which has always been the gold standard for boxing. If you make the matches that people want to see, success will follow and that’s always good for the sport. Top Rank and ESPN have enjoyed great success and ratings by putting together some of the best matches by working with other promotional companies. From Manny Pacquiao vs Jeff Horn in Australia, that broke records, to watching Terence Crawford become the undisputed 140lb champion. Then finally Vasyl Lomachenko/Guillermo Rigondeaux, which was second highest rating fight on the Top Rank on ESPN brand as well as the second on cable TV inthe last five years.
PBC on Showtime also enjoyed enormous success while making a statement. That statement being Showtime is no longer the little brother with successful events like Kell Brook vs Errol Spence Jr where once again we saw hungry young lion emerge within the welterweight division. Of course, who can forget the scenery of the sea of 90,000 plus fans in attendance at Wembely Stadium for Anthony Joshua vs Wladimir Klitschko.
Let’s not forget fights that took place on FS1 where there was plenty of young talent that got to show their stuff as well as the return of some recognizable names like Devon Alexander.
Too even a few upsets like Caleb Truax defecting James Degale showing why boxing is great to watch.
HBO enjoyed successwith twoPPVevents that did over 1 million buys with Canelo Alvarez/Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Alvarez/Gennady Golovkin. Both were Golden Boy Promotions, who also deserves credittheir work ontheESPNformat.
Not everything was perfectof course as there was some issues with judging that left a bad taste in people’s mouth. However,I urge everyoneto notlet a few bad apples ruin what has been a tremendous year overall. So in short and finally I say if there is one positive we have learned this year is when good fights are made FANS show up.
By: Garrisson ‘Bo’ Bland
On point. Forgive me for going business side for a minute. But basic supply and demand at work (over the long haul) will get the fans the fights that they want to see. And it will happen more regularly as the buying and support patterns remain consistent over time.