Thread: Less than 225,000 Buys for Calzaghe-Jones

According to Steve Kim from Maxboxing.com, the Roy Jones Jr.-Joe Calzaghe bout failed to break the 225,000 mark in terms of Pay-Per-View buys. Based on Kim’s article, HBO had “projected” the bout to do 500,000 buys.
My only question is… based on what?


Read further here: Michael Marley'�s Boxing Confidential� News, Analysis, and Commentary

Was this the reason why they had so many feeds shut down?

Originally Posted by Salty

Was this the reason why they had so many feeds shut down?

Those viewing online streams is only a very minimal number but nevertheless HBO is starting a crackdown on online feed providers...

The real reason could be Calzaghe-Jones fight is not really the fans badly wanted...
.

I just have to rant...

I swear to God, all of us could run HBO Boxing better than these idiots. Seriously, right when JoeCal-RJJ was made, I was thinking, what? Who cares? I mean it's a decent fight for boxing fans but if you're trying to put that fight on HBO PPV with a shitty undercard, you've gotta be kidding me. JoeCal really underperformed in terms of TV ratings with the Kessler and Hopkins fight. He's a great talent, but I'm sorry, if HBO couldn't get people to watch the guy on regular HBO, what made them think that they could get people to buy his PPV.

The article writer is right. I don't blame the economy one bit. People are still gonna spend money on buying great fights. Just like people are still spending money on video games and movies. But I'm tired of HBO, Dan Rafael, Larry Merchant, and all these promoters trying to sell fans these bullshit fights. Boxing fans are not stupid. And when boxing fans don't even give a shit about a fight, you can bet money that the mainstream sports fans don't care either. This is what these idiots don't understand, you can't just put two stars together and think it will sell PPV. In order to sell a lot of PPV, you have to have serious interest from hardcore boxing fans, once hardcore boxing fans are interested then the mainstream sports fans will follow. If anybody from HBO would have sat down with a boxing fan consumer and asked about this fight, he/she would have said "for what? hell no, I wouldn't buy that fight."

24/7 can't help you sell trash. Let's be honest, 24/7 only works when you've got interesting guys that seem to really not like each other. I was wondering why the hell HBO scheduled a 24/7 for this fight. Seriously. Mayweather played a helluva villian in the 24/7s with ODLH and Hatton. Seriously, if you weren't a Mayweather fan, you walked away from those 24/7s with your wallet open, ready to order the fight in the hopes that Floyd would lose. Both fights were great on paper too. Nobody said that all fighters should try to be loudmouths and arrogant, but if you're gonna plan to do a show about the fighters, then you have to give people a reason to watch. I didn't really care about JoeCal whinning every 15 seconds about how he's been overlooked blah blah blah and I didn't care about RJJ growing a beard in the woods. I'm sorry but that's boring. And these guys like each other too. Maybe some of you thought different but the mainstream sports fan watched that 24/7 and said "JoeCal seems like a good fighter, wow, when did Roy Jones get so old? He's still fighting? This is pretty boring." They could have covered that fight with a 30 minute countdown show.

This is why I'm predicting the Pac-ODLH fight to not do a lot of PPVs. No boxing fan wanted this fight. I'm happy Pac's getting a good paycheck but that's only reason I'm happy about this fight. Who the hell asked for this fight? Nobody was clamoring for this fight. Morons like Larry Merchant and Dan Rafael from ESPN pushed this fight onto the public in the hopes of creating a big event so that they can hobknob with celebrities and get all the attention that comes along with a big fight. Any boxing fan knows that this is a horrible matchup on paper. And those idiots know it too. It's just sickening to me to see some of the stuff they're doing to sell this fight. Freddie Roach is talking shit every 15 seconds about ODLH, ODLH is almost turning into the villian now (which is hilarious because he can't pull that off) because Manny honestly is just too good of a guy, ODLH saying stuff like "they challenged me" and "they said I couldn't pull the trigger". Give me a break. Also, making this a fight where ODLH will avenge all the Mexicans Pac beat. What? One of the most important Mexicans on Pac's ledger, Erik Morales, has come out and said that's a bad fight for Manny, Julio Caesar Chavez is trying to get Mexico to route for Pacquiao. It's just ridiculous. I hope the fight bombs, so that hopefully HBO realizes that they can't do crap like this anymore.

Once ODLH finally retires, HBO is gonna be screwed. They're basically in bed with Golden Boy right now because they want Oscar fights but Golden Boy hasn't really developed anybody yet. While Top Rank, Dibella, and others are pumping out great prospect after great prospect after great prospect.

Good rant...

But it backfired to my boy's fight, the PAC-Hoya super mega fight...

The only thing I can say about the forthcoming PAC-Hoya fight is, it will be a much much better, exciting, intriguing and entertaining fight than the boxing PPV record breaker (2.2 million buys) Hoya-PBF "Stinko de Mayo" fight...

Guaranteed...
.

Originally Posted by SaddoBoxer

Good rant...

But it backfired to my boy's fight, the PAC-Hoya super mega fight...

The only thing I can say about the forthcoming PAC-Hoya fight is, it will be a much much better, exciting, intriguing and entertaining fight than the boxing PPV record breaker (2.2 million buys) Hoya-PBF "Stinko de Mayo" fight...

Guaranteed...
.

I hope Manny wins but I don't see this as being a great fight match up on paper. ODLH's size, punching power, and arm length will keep Manny off him all night. I think it will be a sloppy fight. Eventually, ODLH will catch Manny. The only way this fight could be a great fight is if ODLH chooses to make it a great fight on the inside because Pac can't hurt him. But if ODLH had to choose between getting hit for the fans and winning a fight by taking as little punishment as possible. He'd take the latter.

Hmmmm, I just watched it on SetantaI would never have paid for it.

I really wonder if the economy is a big reason for the low buys. Both Hopkins/Pavlik and Calzaghe/Jones did much worse than projected. Is it the economy? Or is it cause people didn't want to see it cause Jones and Hopkins are old? Or maybe a mixture of both? At this rate no way Pacquiao vs De La Hoya will pass Mayweather vs De La Hoya.

Originally Posted by albsur2006

Originally Posted by SaddoBoxer

Good rant...

But it backfired to my boy's fight, the PAC-Hoya super mega fight...

The only thing I can say about the forthcoming PAC-Hoya fight is, it will be a much much better, exciting, intriguing and entertaining fight than the boxing PPV record breaker (2.2 million buys) Hoya-PBF "Stinko de Mayo" fight...

Guaranteed...
.

I hope Manny wins but I don't see this as being a great fight match up on paper. ODLH's size, punching power, and arm length will keep Manny off him all night. I think it will be a sloppy fight. Eventually, ODLH will catch Manny. The only way this fight could be a great fight is if ODLH chooses to make it a great fight on the inside because Pac can't hurt him. But if ODLH had to choose between getting hit for the fans and winning a fight by taking as little punishment as possible. He'd take the latter.

Yep... it's a very steep mountain to climb for PAC but you witnessed how PAC fights... he has heart and guts and he will find a way to overcome the giant Hoya...

It will be a disappointing fight if it ends in a KO/TKO in 1 round... but if it will last some few rounds, PAC will surely give Oscar some kind of fight...
.

I'm more fucken surprised that it actually sold that many.
Seriously...

I think that this is excellent news. Boxing fans are voting with their wallets, in spite of the 24/7 show trying to make out like Jones was still viable.

Nobody in their right mind thought that Jones/Calzaghe would be competitive.

HBO sell shit fights at a premium price and I'm glad that they are hurting numbers wise. A fight like Calzaghe/Jones is not a PPV fight IMO... 5-7 years ago most definitely, but not now.

Jones was never a big PPV draw and Calzaghe is pretty much only a superstar when it comes to fanbase in the UK.....People pretty much lost interest in Jones a while back so it is not surprising the numbers were so low....Besides people knew the replay would be on HBO anyhow so why waste money on a fight that was pretty much going to be a disappointment anyhow in the opp of most.....

If this took place 5 years ago it would have had huge numbers

Like I've often said , I always pay for fights as am a die hard fan and you always wroory what you might miss.

But I don't really see how Joe v Jones appealed to the masses apart from the UK fan base and the die hard fans overseas.

I find it pretty sad also that De La Hoya is still the biggest draw on ppv. Sure the guy is a legend but his days as a major player (in fighting terms NOT generating revenue terms) are over.

From a true fan of the sport what is the biggest fight that could be made now whoch would generate interest ? I have to say Mayweather v Margarito (if he unretires) but what is the biggest fight that could be made in terms of ppv numbers ??

It's a funny old game........

Originally Posted by Mark TKO

Like I've often said , I always pay for fights as am a die hard fan and you always wroory what you might miss.

But I don't really see how Joe v Jones appealed to the masses apart from the UK fan base and the die hard fans overseas.

I find it pretty sad also that De La Hoya is still the biggest draw on ppv. Sure the guy is a legend but his days as a major player (in fighting terms NOT generating revenue terms) are over.

From a true fan of the sport what is the biggest fight that could be made now whoch would generate interest ? I have to say Mayweather v Margarito (if he unretires) but what is the biggest fight that could be made in terms of ppv numbers ??

It's a funny old game........

I would have to disagree and say Hatton vs Pacquiao would generate more interest. Mayweather vs Margarito would be huge too!