Pre-fight hype: When it's warranted and when it's not

[Master]

Spicoli, that reminds me of Roy Jones v Trinidad hype which was bad and they used the military for that too.

A fight way past its sell by date.

[Alpha]

Can I just add one thing I just thought about:

Selling tickets to weigh ins, and huge crowds turning out to them, or press conferences is definitely a sign of huge hype for a fight.

[Alpha]

Spicoli, that reminds me of Roy Jones v Trinidad hype which was bad and they used the military for that too.

A fight way past its sell by date.

Now that you mention Trinidad, you jogged my memory.

Remember the Tito/ Hopkins presser in PR, when Hopkins threw the flag on the ground. That sh-t was intense. Real hype for that one.

[Spicoli]

Spicoli, that reminds me of Roy Jones v Trinidad hype which was bad and they used the military for that too.

A fight way past its sell by date.

Yeh that was bad. Not sure how that fight even made it to the store shelf. Not as bad as Roy in that massive wig with the pirate costume though . Roy was definitely on top of self promotion.

[TitoFan]

Spicoli, that reminds me of Roy Jones v Trinidad hype which was bad and they used the military for that too.

A fight way past its sell by date.

Now that you mention Trinidad, you jogged my memory.

Remember the Tito/ Hopkins presser in PR, when Hopkins threw the flag on the ground. That sh-t was intense. Real hype for that one.

It certainly got MY blood boiling back then.

Fans with an emotional type of backing of a fighter can get sucked in by promotional stuff like that.

[TitoFan]

Good discussion and examples.

Just want to add though..... in the past we've had threads on super-hyped fights that disappointed, or met/exceeded expectations....... and fights not very much hyped which turned out to be super fights.

But this thread actually adds another variant..... the fights whose pre-fight hype was unwarranted because everyone should've known it wasn't going to be competitive, be it due to huge size difference, or huge difference in skill set.

A warranted super-hyped fight that ends up disappointing is not the fans or the matchmaker's fault. The hype was warranted because it was competitive on paper.

Whereas an unwarranted super-hyped fight that hardcore fans know won't be competitive has a little more blame to go around.

[TitoFan]

Hbo doesn't even do full 24-7s now which were pretty good.

They seem to have made an exception for Ginger.

[Alpha]

Although it wasn't boxing the Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki event was hyped around the world at the time.

Jack Johnson vs James J. Jeffries was hugest the time. With Jeffries being out for nearly 6 years it was pure hype for a great white hope.

[TitoFan]

Jack Johnson vs James J. Jeffries was hugest the time. With Jeffries being out for nearly 6 years it was pure hype for a great white hope.

There was a fair share of that throughout the history of heavyweight boxing, which could probably fill a thread of its own. That's a good example, as is the Holmes-Cooney fight. I think the U.S. always craved a white heavyweight champion, and was quick to jump the bandwagon of anyone coming remotely close to filling that void. Ironically, the time a white man dominated the heavyweight scene for a while in recent times, it was a Ukrainian behemoth.

[brocktonblockbust]

oh yeah Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney man you talk about height that was big time hike that was high tension that almost ledt the race riots in some cities

[Fenster]

I think Oscar-Pac more than lived up to the hype. Oscar was the favourite, when the fight was first bandied about the general feeling was a mismatch, I was amongst the majority who thought Pac was simply too small, but it was the sheer electric performance Pac produced which was amazing, flawless and vicious, he reduced an all-time great to a whimpering soul who needed resucing.

Also fights like Leonard-Hearns II, sneered at by all the "expert" fossils at the time because they were "old" men, and tainted by a "robbery" decision, turned out a great fight. I dare anyone to watch that fight today and tell me those two guys couldn't more than hold their own with today's middleweights.

Benn-Eubank 1 hype was more than warranted, the 2nd meeting not so.

Gman-Benn surpassed the hype.

In recent years Wlad-AJ surpassed the hype too, although no harsh words between the two the hype was huge in Britain, the weigh-in had more people than most fighters get at actual fights, and no-one expected an up-and-down epic.

[Master]

Hbo doesn't even do full 24-7s now which were pretty good.

They seem to have made an exception for Ginger.

First time I watched 24/7 was for Pac Man v Margarito and just fell into the hype. I really thought Antonio was going to be too big and strong for the smaller Manny. The fight lived up to the hype and it was a masterclass destruction job by Manny although in the middle of the fight Margarito lands a vicious body shot that nearly split Pac Man in two pieces. I think Manny decided never to venture up to that weight again.

Watching 24/7 now you can read between the lines and see the hype not from what is said but from what is not shown. A lot of Floyd's was on other things outside of the fight.

[Beanz]

Here in the UK there can not have been many more more disappointing fights than Cleverly/ Bellew. Boxer against alleged Puncher. Intense enmity. Damp Squib.


Personally I was hugely disappointed in Quigg/Frampton. Even though I was rooting for Quigg I thought that the only way for Frampton to pull it off would have been by spectacular stoppage but even he turned in quite a routine dull performance (well breaking Quiggs jaw early on I suppose is quite impressive).

[TAPugil]

Under Hyped billed as "Bombs Away" Jackson vs McCellan. Intro they showed bombs dropping from planes. Couldn't have been more true to an arena that wasn't half full.
Bowe vs Gonzalez. Two Big Men And Jorge trash talked up a good fight. Didn't put one up though.

[El Kabong]

Under Hyped billed as "Bombs Away" Jackson vs McCellan. Intro they showed bombs dropping from planes. Couldn't have been more true to an arena that wasn't half full.
Bowe vs Gonzalez. Two Big Men And Jorge trash talked up a good fight. Didn't put one up though.

I always craved Bowe vs Tyson or Bowe vs Shannon Briggs, or Tyson vs Shannon Briggs all guys are from the same neighborhood, they all have different personalities, they all could punch, and they all could take a shot pretty good....the timing for those fights never worked out, but MAN you talk about a GREAT Madison Square Garden fight environment, just an old fashioned neighborhood brawl to be....




Oh any of those would have been lovely even if no title at all was on the line....and I think that clinches it for me, when a fight is about something more than a belt, if it's personal, if PRIDE is the biggest thing on the table that's what TRUE rivalries are built on and you can go back in history and point those out Ali-Frazier...who fucking cares about a title it's fuckin Ali-Frazier....Louis-Schmelling II WHAT?!?!?! The WORLD needed to be shown who was the best title shmitle there was more to it than that. Leonard-Duran....Ray Leonard "i want to thank Roberto for giving me this opportunity to have this fight"...Duran *spits at Ray* insults Ray's wife....that's not theatrics or it didn't friggin seem like it it felt real.