Why can't American fighters sell the same amount of tickets as UK fighters?

[nuggetdotcom]

I've just been reading about how AJ has sold 230,000 tickets in his last 3 fights compared to Wilders 42,000
We all know that Wilder isn't a huge star in America despite being HW champ and a KO artist but what sort of tickets to Thurman, Crawford and Spence sell?

In the UK we have a fight on TV pretty much every Saturday whether it be on Sky Sports, BoxNation or Sky PPV, Does America have cards on TV that often, over here we get all the big fights from across the pond but do you have domestic fights televised every week that we don't see, what is the promotion like for them, should they be doing more to get peoples interest?

It seems that the UK turn out in their droves for a fair few of our fighters, and boxing in general seems to be gaining more and more popularity over here, as much as I hate to say it credit has to go to Hearn for that, aside from the Sky promotion machine he puts time into building the youngsters up, putting televised cards on of a Friday night just to showcase the 'NXTGEN' fighters, its clever in the sense that he can just chuck some of the kids on a PPV undercard and they are names that people recognize and they won't cost Matchroom the earth to get them on.

At the same time the way they promote absolute meaningless fights like Bellew v Haye, I think that the big wigs in charge realize that the hardened boxing fan won't have a lot of interest but the casuals will eat it up, do American fights get the same sort of promotion or is it only the real big fights that get that sort of treatment?

Is it because America is so much bigger than the UK that people find it harder to throw their support behind American fighters whereas over here we feel that fighters from London to Newcastle are 'our own'

I don't mean for this to become a 'UK v USA' thread, I'm genuinely interested about the promotion and regularity of your fight nights.

Whilst I agree that the boxing significance of Haye Vs Bellend is insignificant, the media interest is, and brit media is immediately putting the winner up as a 'contender' bloody ridiculous, as much as I am a Haye fan. I guess we've got more interest at the lower end and the yanks only watch the 'top' end which is currently Wilder against some insignificant stiff.

[powerpuncher]

The UK also buy into ridiculous fights like Haye vs Bellew 🤮

[imp]

Good thread.

UFC must be stealing a bit of the US market.

USA must be 30-40 times bigger than the UK and should have a much better stranglehold on the boxing community..perhaps it’s just about quality rather than quantity.

[powerpuncher]

Good thread.

UFC must be stealing a bit of the US market.

USA must be 30-40 times bigger than the UK and should have a much better stranglehold on the boxing community..perhaps it’s just about quality rather than quantity.

The US just have way more popular sports. The US has some good fighters but many more people care about UFC.

[Ron Swanson]

The thread starts on a false premise. That nobody knows Wilder. This is people falling for Eddie's tricks. Amazing people fall for this.

For example, one 430k watched Joshua vs Parker.(average) That is the prime time showing. The afternoon showing had less. The next afternoon had less still.

Where as Wilder vs Ortiz averaged 1.1 million. Wilder consistently has the best numbers in the states.

So don't fall for Eddie's tricks.

Like others have said Boxing falls under "other sports" here. Every Saturday my local University packs more than 110,000 in for a football game. There are 118 such Division I universities. There is also Division II, III, NAIA. There is pro football. There is pro basketball, college basketball, and on And on. America is one big distraction so the people don't notice how quickly the country crumbles around them. And we don't support by nationality. I would say about 1/3 of my boxing fandom an American was my favorite.

Add in that boxing can't be seen in a stadium. Frankly anyone going to a stadium fight is going to enjoy the atmosphere, not watch a fight.

The reasons can go On and On why a stadium fight in U.S.
is an awful idea

[Primo Carnera]

The thread starts on a false premise. That nobody knows Wilder. This is people falling for Eddie's tricks. Amazing people fall for this.

For example, one 430k watched Joshua vs Parker.(average) That is the prime time showing. The afternoon showing had less. The next afternoon had less still.

Where as Wilder vs Ortiz averaged 1.1 million. Wilder consistently has the best numbers in the states.

So don't fall for Eddie's tricks.

Like others have said Boxing falls under "other sports" here. Every Saturday my local University packs more than 110,000 in for a football game. There are 118 such Division I universities. There is also Division II, III, NAIA. There is pro football. There is pro basketball, college basketball, and on And on. America is one big distraction so the people don't notice how quickly the country crumbles around them. And we don't support by nationality. I would say about 1/3 of my boxing fandom an American was my favorite.

Add in that boxing can't be seen in a stadium. Frankly anyone going to a stadium fight is going to enjoy the atmosphere, not watch a fight.

The reasons can go On and On why a stadium fight in U.S.
is an awful idea

I agree with your comments on Stadium fights . But you have to admit that :
1. Joshua getting 430k viewers as a foreign boxer compared to Wilder’s 1.1 million is more impressive. For example when Wilder is shown in the UK, he wouldn’t get anywhere 35% of the viewers that Joshua would get.
2. When you do a pro rata calculation based on the population of the US as opposed to the population of the UK , 1.1 million viewers is pretty pathetic for somebody holding one of the most prestigious positions of World Sport, a WORLD Heavyweight Champion.
Furthermore when you consider the rich heritage of US World HW Champions , Louis, Ali, Liston,Frazier, Foreman, Holmes,Tyson, etc.etc. Etc. It’s blatantly obvious that the public just aren’t buying him. Hence, why he has to try to get attention by saying some of the most idiotic things you’ve ever heard in your life, like how “he wants a body on his record” and “I thought I had one when Zpilica went down as he stopped breathing.” He’s a cunt and he should be banned for minimum one year.
Before he said that, I was ok with him, but that is unacceptable.
The Americans are very choosy in their sporting heroes, much more so than the Brits. Americans will only go overboard about someone who is actually the real deal and not just hype. Which is exactly how it should be.
I don’t think that it’s about the volume of sports in the US, I think Boxing is more popular than that. Now if you had given that reason about Michael Johnson or John McEnroe not getting their dues, I would fully accept it , because their sports are minority in the US.

[Ron Swanson]

The thread starts on a false premise. That nobody knows Wilder. This is people falling for Eddie's tricks. Amazing people fall for this.

For example, one 430k watched Joshua vs Parker.(average) That is the prime time showing. The afternoon showing had less. The next afternoon had less still.

Where as Wilder vs Ortiz averaged 1.1 million. Wilder consistently has the best numbers in the states.

So don't fall for Eddie's tricks.

Like others have said Boxing falls under "other sports" here. Every Saturday my local University packs more than 110,000 in for a football game. There are 118 such Division I universities. There is also Division II, III, NAIA. There is pro football. There is pro basketball, college basketball, and on And on. America is one big distraction so the people don't notice how quickly the country crumbles around them. And we don't support by nationality. I would say about 1/3 of my boxing fandom an American was my favorite.

Add in that boxing can't be seen in a stadium. Frankly anyone going to a stadium fight is going to enjoy the atmosphere, not watch a fight.

The reasons can go On and On why a stadium fight in U.S.
is an awful idea

I agree with your comments on Stadium fights . But you have to admit that :
1. Joshua getting 430k viewers as a foreign boxer compared to Wilder’s 1.1 million is more impressive. For example when Wilder is shown in the UK, he wouldn’t get anywhere 35% of the viewers that Joshua would get.
2. When you do a pro rata calculation based on the population of the US as opposed to the population of the UK , 1.1 million viewers is pretty pathetic for somebody holding one of the most prestigious positions of World Sport, a WORLD Heavyweight Champion.
Furthermore when you consider the rich heritage of US World HW Champions , Louis, Ali, Liston,Frazier, Foreman, Holmes,Tyson, etc.etc. Etc. It’s blatantly obvious that the public just aren’t buying him. Hence, why he has to try to get attention by saying some of the most idiotic things you’ve ever heard in your life, like how “he wants a body on his record” and “I thought I had one when Zpilica went down as he stopped breathing.” He’s a cunt and he should be banned for minimum one year.
Before he said that, I was ok with him, but that is unacceptable.
The Americans are very choosy in their sporting heroes, much more so than the Brits. Americans will only go overboard about someone who is actually the real deal and not just hype. Which is exactly how it should be.
I don’t think that it’s about the volume of sports in the US, I think Boxing is more popular than that. Now if you had given that reason about Michael Johnson or John McEnroe not getting their dues, I would fully accept it , because their sports are minority in the US.

I don't think foreign has anything to do with it. Clenelo gets good numbers, Pac got great numbers, Morales, JCC, Tito, can go On and On and on.

I think Americans don't like bigger lumbering athletes. Holyfield was more popular than Bowe who dominated him. Tyson was more popular than Holyfield who dominated him. The more explosive athlete is more popular.


AJ fights more like Klitschko all the time, great for his career but won't draw American fans. Look at Lennox, Americans love winners right, he never caught on, safety first style.

If AJ fought with reckless abandon his numbers would go up. It's a cage fight country now. Very few of us want to see skill.

If UK will take the reigns as the place to fight I say fine. I just hope you all start making the demands we made of fighters here over the years. The softer matchmaking needs to go if you will run the market. And scorecards need to improve.(no offense, I know US had its share of BS cards)