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

[Batman]

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.

[smashup]

UK record viewing figures (Millions)

Ali v Frazier 1971 BBC 27.3
McGuigan v Cabrera 1986 BBC 18.3
McGuigan v Pedroza 1985 BBC 18.0
Eubank v Benn 1993 ITV 16.3
Malinga v Eubank 1992 ITV 13.3
Benn v McClellan 1995 ITV 13.1
Rocchigiani v Eubank 1994 ITV 12.3
Eubank v Close 1993 ITV 11.5
Eubank v Thornton 1992 ITV 10.3
Eubank v Holmes 1993 ITV 10.1,
Bruno v Marin 1995 ITV 10.1

[Fenster]

You young fans and casuals don't know how infuriating it is after 20 years of constantly putting up with - "he needs to prove himself in the States," "not a true champion until you fight in the States," "padded record British bums," "needs to fight an American," "America is the only country you get a fair shake," "Americans can't leave home they'll get robbed," "corrupt UK judges/refs," "he's not a real world champion until he fights in the States"...

And the coup de grace, the one thing all these ignorant blowhards always had as a trump card was - "America is where the money is at!!!" Game set and match. It was true, Britain couldn't compete financially with America, so to expect a fighter to travel for a paycut didn't make sense.

However, the minds of jaded, casual and young fans have been so badly polluted with "America is the bestest," that still to this day, even with the economic situation being turned on its head, Britain being the worlds hot bed for tickets sales and TV figures, Brit stars are expected to pander to American fighters. British fans, not just Americans, believe AJ needs to PROVE himself in America, give Wilder all his money, chase, chase, chase a man that offers NOTHING other than he is American. Utterly pathetic.

Hope this helps.

[Fenster]

By the way, that 42,000 is a fudged number, they "comp" the tickets in the States, which means they give away mass unsold seats at the last minute to make it look better on TV (like the Oscars), literally take people off the streets. Whatever number they declare halve it (I was told that by a man that earns a living through selling tickets)

[Batman]

You young fans and casuals don't know how infuriating it is after 20 years of constantly putting up with - "he needs to prove himself in the States," "not a true champion until you fight in the States," "padded record British bums," "needs to fight an American," "America is the only country you get a fair shake," "Americans can't leave home they'll get robbed," "corrupt UK judges/refs," "he's not a real world champion until he fights in the States"...

And the coup de grace, the one thing all these ignorant blowhards always had as a trump card was - "America is where the money is at!!!" Game set and match. It was true, Britain couldn't compete financially with America, so to expect a fighter to travel for a paycut didn't make sense.

However, the minds of jaded, casual and young fans have been so badly polluted with "America is the bestest," that still to this day, even with the economic situation being turned on its head, Britain being the worlds hot bed for tickets sales and TV figures, Brit stars are expected to pander to American fighters. British fans, not just Americans, believe AJ needs to PROVE himself in America, give Wilder all his money, chase, chase, chase a man that offers NOTHING other than he is American. Utterly pathetic.

Hope this helps.

Not really what I was asking Fenners, I was on about boxing in America on a domestic level as well as the big international stage, look at Haye v Bellew, just a few months back they managed to make a big deal of Burns v Crolla, Jesus we even had Okolie v Chamberlain, do the Americans not enjoy these domestic dust ups or are they only interested in the big fights or do they take place, sell tickets and get put on TV but we don't hear about it?

As you said the trump card was always 'America is where the money is at what has changed, is it just not as popular, are they still hungover from Floyd?

[Primo Carnera]

@Batman, The thing is , in the states , the crowds don't come together in their droves for domestic or top fights. It's a culturally different thing. yes, there have been some Stadium fights, but few and far between. Usually with an "Immigrant" fanbase , (Mexican , Puerto Rican) . But for the Major part , the money for the big fights is generated by the TV companies (Like the UK) but Atlantic City or Vegas etc. more than the volume of fans.
This is just my opinion , but it would be better if somebody Stateside could either confirm or shoot down this theory.

[TitoFan]

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.

Frankly, I had never seen you write more than 3 sentences before.



Anyway, it's an interesting subject, so I'll add my thoughts.

Boxing popularity in the U.S. is on the decline. Here's a few reasons why:



1. UFC has taken a big bite out of boxing. Let's face it... before UFC it was either boxing or pro wrestling. Not much of a choice, IMO. Now that UFC exists, many fans, particularly younger ones, have gravitated toward that instead of boxing.

2. The U.S. currently lacks marquee stars in the sport. Other than Wilder, there has been a huge void in U.S. heavyweights since the days of Holmes and Tyson. So interest in general has waned, because like I've always said, casual fans only like to see big guys fighting. They couldn't care less about the lighter guys.

3. The few transcendent U.S. stars in boxing as of late have been, let's say..... difficult to rally behind. Think Mayweather, who more people hate than not. Think Ward, who used to fight every other year before he up and beat Kovalev twice.... then retired.

4. U.S. fans tend to lose interest in sports where they are not dominating. Sounds harsh, but it's true. The converse is also true. When they begin to dominate, popularity picks up. Look at curling. Curling's always been viewed as the laughing stock of Winter Olympic sports in the U.S. All of a sudden, the men win the gold, and now it seems curling popularity has picked way up.

5. U.S. boxing has always been a smaller piece of the sports panorama pie than its counterpart in the UK. Meaning that U.S. sports fans have infinitely more sports interests to divvy up its attention. Boxing is seen as a fringe sport. Look up any sports site, and you'll see a dozen links for major sports up on top, followed by the "Other Sports" category. In that category, you'll find boxing.



The UK has always been constant in its support of its boxers, and has suffered through time periods of "drought". So now that the number of champs has increased and the level in general has been upped.... the interest is obviously going to be multiplied.

[Master]

Everyone is insulting Batman today.

[Batman]

Everyone is insulting Batman today.

Bastards the lot of ya

[powerpuncher]

Boxing in the states in way down on list of important sports. Baseball, American football, and basketball are by far the biggest. Americans like highlights. That’s why football (soccer to us Americans) isn’t as big. It’s looked at as boring. Although it is getting much bigger here and there is becoming a huge niche. UFC is also pretty popular. People talk about it a lot. I have a brother and a cousin who used to watch boxing but have basically quit and only watch UFC now.

The US is huge too and boxing is only popular in specific areas. Like Wilder is from Alabama and that is not a boxing state. Crawford is from Nebraska which is not a boxing state. I never run into boxing fans and I live in a city. It’s just not that popular here. Americans have too many other sports they focus on.

We can fill huge stadiums for professional and college sports. Stadiums of 100,000 but not for boxing. Just doesn’t have the demand.

[Master]

Boxing in the states in way down on list of important sports. Baseball, American football, and basketball are by far the biggest. Americans like highlights. That’s why football (soccer to us Americans) isn’t as big. It’s looked at as boring. Although it is getting much bigger here and there is becoming a huge niche. UFC is also pretty popular. People talk about it a lot. I have a brother and a cousin who used to watch boxing but have basically quit and only watch UFC now.

The US is huge too and boxing is only popular in specific areas. Like Wilder is from Alabama and that is not a boxing state. Crawford is from Nebraska which is not a boxing state. I never run into boxing fans and I live in a city. It’s just not that popular here. Americans have too many other sports they focus on.

We can fill huge stadiums for professional and college sports. Stadiums of 100,000 but not for boxing. Just doesn’t have the demand.

How times have changed....

[Primo Carnera]

UK record viewing figures (Millions)

Ali v Frazier 1971 BBC 27.3
McGuigan v Cabrera 1986 BBC 18.3
McGuigan v Pedroza 1985 BBC 18.0
Eubank v Benn 1993 ITV 16.3
Malinga v Eubank 1992 ITV 13.3
Benn v McClellan 1995 ITV 13.1
Rocchigiani v Eubank 1994 ITV 12.3
Eubank v Close 1993 ITV 11.5
Eubank v Thornton 1992 ITV 10.3
Eubank v Holmes 1993 ITV 10.1,
Bruno v Marin 1995 ITV 10.1
Eubank Jr.v all his PPV’s except Groves. 2017/18 ITV. 17 (Not in Millions.)

Fixed that for you.

[nuggetdotcom]

You young fans and casuals don't know how infuriating it is after 20 years of constantly putting up with - "he needs to prove himself in the States," "not a true champion until you fight in the States," "padded record British bums," "needs to fight an American," "America is the only country you get a fair shake," "Americans can't leave home they'll get robbed," "corrupt UK judges/refs," "he's not a real world champion until he fights in the States"...

And the coup de grace, the one thing all these ignorant blowhards always had as a trump card was - "America is where the money is at!!!" Game set and match. It was true, Britain couldn't compete financially with America, so to expect a fighter to travel for a paycut didn't make sense.

However, the minds of jaded, casual and young fans have been so badly polluted with "America is the bestest," that still to this day, even with the economic situation being turned on its head, Britain being the worlds hot bed for tickets sales and TV figures, Brit stars are expected to pander to American fighters. British fans, not just Americans, believe AJ needs to PROVE himself in America, give Wilder all his money, chase, chase, chase a man that offers NOTHING other than he is American. Utterly pathetic.

Hope this helps.

Bloody hell, I am in 100% agreement, America is not a mainline provider of decent fighters any more, only the media hype to bull them up to the rest of the world. Triple G beats any American intermediate, and there are at least 4 Euro heavyweights who would make a mug out of Wilder. They have learned nothing from the Klitscho years. I'm not saying our heavyweights are great, its just that the yanks are currently piss poor because they can make more money playing American football. No wonder Dillyan White is screaming for a fight with Wilder, easy money, but the others are hanging back to get higher dibs in the money game, so its all politics, the top four or five know Wilder is an easy fight, but are trying to work out how two or three of them can have a worthwhile bite, the fact is that he gets spanked by any one of them and disappears and no more money making opportunities for both sides.

[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 🤮