Quote Originally Posted by Bilbo View Post
Quote Originally Posted by 0james0 View Post
Promoters make stars, simple as that.

Who is to say that in 2 years we don't see something completley unimaginable like Khan beat an over the hill Floyd? Prob will never happen, but you never know, suddenly then Khan is PFP #1 and fans around the world are waiting to see him fight Cotto who has now grown into an unstoppable force.

Anything can happen and the promoters will twist and turn to make things look rosey.

I disagree. Promoters would love to make stars, and they certainly try, Jeff Lacy, Antonio Margarito spring to mind.

But these guys didn't make big PPV money.....at all.

At the end of the day a star in boxing is someone who can smash the 1 million PPV buys barrier and that's what I'm concerned boxing may not have once Floyd and Manny leave.

Guys like Berto, Dawson, Ward, Dirrell etc are all good exciting fighters, but believe me they have a long way to go before they could command 500,000 buys let alone be a star draw.

Outside of Floyd and Manny there are no stars left in boxing really. We have one big fight, Wlad vs Haye, and not a whole lot else.

I'm not talking about good, exciting, action fights, there will be plenty of those, I'm talking about fights that attract more than the hardcore boxing fans.

The Super Six tournament for example is NOT doing that, at least in the UK, where only about 300 people are even aware it's happening.

Showtime fighters just aren't stars. Look at Vazquez Marquez. A great trilogy, one of the best of all time, and yet only the hardcore boxing fans will ever heard of these two fighters because they weren't draws like Gatti and Ward.

Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic, but I am concerned that once the top two fighters in the world leave, and Wlad disposes of Haye, boxing will become secondary to MMA in PPV sales and commercial revenue.

I think there is a real chance of this happening.
Why does boxing still have a stronghold then on PPV sales? Because the people that like MMA don't have the money to plop down 50 on a fight. Demographically, by the numbers I think they are young uneducated people.

The MMA people are trying to figure out a way to get more of this money, but they are competing with landlords, tattoo shops, and value meals.