Paul Lake's Left Knee said:leighton said:shevtheblue said:So another reason why warrens boxing channel is fucked.
Warren is up shit creek at the moment. He aint paying fighters is the rumours I am hearing all the time. Boxnation as a concept wont work in the long term. Who remembers the golf channel??? Now that had so many tournaments each week of the year and that fail and there is more golf fans than boxing fans in my opinion.
Rumours going around that Boxnation are hoping to get a deal with the new BT station who have basically taken over ESPN's UK and Ireland's content. So ESPN by July I think goes off our screens and comes back as BT Sport or whatever they are going to call it. So Warren is hoping that BT Sport will take over Boxnation and basically include it in the BT Sports brand. I think the head of BT Sport worked with Warren setting up Boxnation and got the BT Sports job so dont be shocked if Warren ends up on BT Sport. Saying that by the time that happens he may well lose out on his major fighters. I heard Ricky Burns has been talking to Matchroom sport aswell. So it wouldnt shock me to see the best of the British fighters all fighting on Sky under Matchroom. Look how well they have done with the likes of Brook , Frampton , Bellew , Barker and Froch those 5 fighters and fighting in and headlining big venues with 8000 to 12000 fans at those fights. Other fighters would love to do that regularly under Warren if your not Cleverley or Burns your left behind.
Thought this was a good article. It would seem Warren is in a bit of trouble but of course he has been before.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/mar/01/eddie-hearn-frank-warren
Santiago Street . said:Leighton, it seems like you might be right about Warren - the whole Burns card is off now.
Santiago Street . said:Something fishy about Burns Vasquez from when it was announced. I'd be surprised if the fight goes ahead in April. Fat Frank would rather Burns fought Liam Walsh (who?) or any number of mugs a la Moses, Cook etc rather than take on a risky fight. It should've been Burns fighting Broner not Rees.
Frank's on a slippery slope - look at how he's "guided"Cleverly ffs, at his peak at 26, alphabet world champ for almost 2 years, yet still fighting fucking nobodies, his big dream being to fight 87 year old Bernard Hopkins.
Saw a snippet of an interview with Barker on Ringside last week. Giving off strange vibes, he's 30 now and hasn't had a smooth ride through life, looks to me like his tank may be empty - interesting to see how copes with the limited but savvy Rotolo
tweetstreet said:Makes me laugh warren on bunce's boxing show having a to at people criticising how he runs his business.
Well from the sounds of it a couple of million pound loss, rumours of unpaid and unhappy fighters and a lack of entertaining fights of late I'd day he isn't exactly doing a stellar job.
A few swipes at matchroom for how they match their fighters such as getting them world title shots which they had to fight abroad and lost, although forgetting Froch fought in the super 6 final which had to be in the states, Rees probably got a career high pay day against Broner with the bonus of stateside recognition despite a defeat, Barker for one of the best fighters in the world in Martinez and gave a good account of himself plus he is in the twilight of his career now with quite a few miles on the clock.
It has been mentioned how MMA is moving on by matching the top fighters and not placing huge emphasis on a fighters 0. If brook loses to Alexander for example it won't be career ending it will be vital experience learned.
I can see Ricky Burns heading to matchroom soon, and Cleverly too maybe. I'm not sure how warren operates in regards to paying fighters really but I have heard Hearn guarantees his fighters a deposit upfront and the general consensus is they get paid in full within a month.
tweetstreet said:Plus he has said before that not every show makes money and this is quite notorious within the sport, A fight night like the Froch v Kessler night will generally pay for a couple of cards that don't make tv or are headlined by a British level fighter v a mandatory no name defence.
I'd imagine prize fighter is currently a money maker, it's not great for the hard core fight fan but it gets people watching the only issue I have is a balance has to be found with who the fighters of. It needs 2 or 3 oldies looking for a last hurrah whose win could be sold as a mini rocky story and 5 or 6 prospects, contenders and unheard ofs whose names can be built on if they win.
I like boxnation but I'm not sure it's long for this world after the rumours I've heard about warrens finances, and the subscriptions that have to be obtained to secure a break even. I wonder what would happen if either warren went bust or lost his star names or boxnation went bust? Would sky pick up ore fights or would boxing be outin the wilderness hoping for terrestrial tv or espn?