Wright V Hopkins

[mh2365]

Originally Posted by hamed

Wow, this surprised me! We discussed how many people here would buy this fight & almost nobody said they would & we're some hard core boxing fans.

305,000 buy Hopkins-Wright!
HBOPPV today reported 305,000 PPV buys and $15.3 million of PPV revenue for the July 21 Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright light heavyweight fight. That figure represents the second-highest total this year for a PPV fight, behind only De La Hoya-Mayweather. "We are pleased with the PPV performance of Hopkins-Wright," said Mark Taffet of HBOPPV. "It performed well within the range of expectations. Most importantly, following Barrera-Marquez, De La Hoya-Mayweather and Cotto-Judah, the Hopkins-Wright fight continues the string of high profile boxing events which have resulted in HBOPPV being on a record-setting pace for 2007 amidst what has been a great resurgence for the sport of boxing as evidenced by the fights which have taken place or are scheduled to take place both live on HBO and on HBOPPV this year."
Wednesday, August 1 2007

Anybody here buy it?

[mh2365]

Originally Posted by Thunder

It's ok Mike, JT has bounced back nicely after his three-fight losing streak.

He has been less than impressive his last 3 fights but he still has a 0 in the loss column .. unlike Winky who just has a 0 in the brains department .... oooo SNAP!!!!

[Thunder]

Originally Posted by mh2365

He has been less than impressive his last 3 fights but he still has a 0 in the loss column .. unlike Winky who just has a 0 in the brains department .... oooo SNAP!!!!

hahahahaha . . and I didn't buy it

[mh2365]

Originally Posted by Thunder

hahahahaha . . and I didn't buy it

And I think you and I are the two biggest PPV whores on the board .. I'm pretty sure I'm buying the Diaz-Morales fight this weekend.

[Thunder]

Originally Posted by mh2365

And I think you and I are the two biggest PPV whores on the board .. I'm pretty sure I'm buying the Diaz-Morales fight this weekend.

Ya I gotta start doing what others do, screw copyright law and start sticking the PPV DVDs on ebay for $10 a pop, recoup some $$ for my sizeable cable bill.

[Jim_Kidd]

Originally Posted by hamed

Wow, this surprised me! We discussed how many people here would buy this fight & almost nobody said they would & we're some hard core boxing fans.

305,000 buy Hopkins-Wright!
HBOPPV today reported 305,000 PPV buys and $15.3 million of PPV revenue for the July 21 Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright light heavyweight fight. That figure represents the second-highest total this year for a PPV fight, behind only De La Hoya-Mayweather. "We are pleased with the PPV performance of Hopkins-Wright," said Mark Taffet of HBOPPV. "It performed well within the range of expectations. Most importantly, following Barrera-Marquez, De La Hoya-Mayweather and Cotto-Judah, the Hopkins-Wright fight continues the string of high profile boxing events which have resulted in HBOPPV being on a record-setting pace for 2007 amidst what has been a great resurgence for the sport of boxing as evidenced by the fights which have taken place or are scheduled to take place both live on HBO and on HBOPPV this year."
Wednesday, August 1 2007

With the exception of Cotto, none of the fighters are going to be around to entertain a new generation of boxing fans. Maybe Mayweather will stick around for one or two more fights.

Boxing needs guys like Kelly Pavlik, Rafael Marquez and maybe a Mikkel Kessler, to start become headline attractions. Those are the kind of fighters who bring excitement to the sport's casual fans and keeps them talking. These are guys who fight as well as box and can blast their opponents out of there instead of hunting and pecking their way to decision victories. That's one of the reasons MMA attracts fans. There is no real cautious way to victory there. You have to fight to win.

Boxers who bring the science and brutality combination into the ring are the fighters needed to revive the mass interest in the sport - like it was back in the day when everyone knew the names of the sports top fighters.

[hamed]

Good points Jim, that's why I'm surprised the Hopkins fight did so well. It's true both guys have some name recoginition (especially Hopkins) but that didn't seem like a fight casual fight fans would buy. 2 cautious guys known more for defense than KO power - especially @ this point in their careers.

Most of the fight fans here were willing to wait for the the replay on HBO the following week.

[Jim_Kidd]

Originally Posted by hamed

Good points Jim, that's why I'm surprised the Hopkins fight did so well. It's true both guys have some name recoginition (especially Hopkins) but that didn't seem like a fight casual fight fans would buy. 2 cautious guys known more for defense than KO power - especially @ this point in their careers.

Most of the fight fans here were willing to wait for the the replay on HBO the following week.

Well, the thing is, the guys who come to boards like this one are basically right in the center circle of the sport. So our view of things is much different from those outside that circle.

Take Hopkins for instance. The average "sports" person probably knows he beat Trinidad, beat DeLaHoya and now won the Lt. Heavyweight title. And maybe that he's in his early 40's.

That's about it. The hard-core boxing guy knows Hopkins' punch out-put isn't what it used to be. His knockout power is a lot less than before... and he rarely, if ever, will fight a full three minutes of a round any longer.

They also know, if Winky is going to knock anyone out, he'll probably have to go all the way down to 154 again - or fight someone he can totally outclass. The average "sports" guy knows that Winky Wright beat Trinidad and drew with Jermain Taylor (possible even beat him - the official score cards aside). Maybe they don't even know that fight happened, it's hard to say.

That doesn't make the hard-core fan better, of course. It just gives them a different perspective.

I didn't buy the fight for all the above con's that I knew of. If I found $50 bucks on the street corner and had nothing to do that night, yeah... maybe I would have.

Boxing will always have a niche of hard-core fans. Some of them will be so hard-core, they'll even buy simulation games to keep them going when the real sport doesn't

One thing about Title Bout... if you can take or leave boxing, but enjoy the game (TBCB II/III), it can make you a fan. Especially back in the day when the boxing cards had the Bio's on the back that made them very easy to read.

It made friend's of mine fans who were never really that interested in the sport before.

Maybe an attached PDF file with bios of the top 20 fighters (in no particular order) for each weight division would make a good supplement to the game?

[Thunder]

Originally Posted by Jim_Kidd

One thing about Title Bout... if you can take or leave boxing, but enjoy the game (TBCB II/III), it can make you a fan. Especially back in the day when the boxing cards had the Bio's on the back that made them very easy to read.

It made friend's of mine fans who were never really that interested in the sport before.

Maybe an attached PDF file with bios of the top 20 fighters (in no particular order) for each weight division would make a good supplement to the game?

There are bios for a lot of guys already (many right off the cards)

[Jim_Kidd]

Yes, the bio's are good. I'm just thinking about people that are new to the game. Those who really don't know much about the history of the sport and it's wild, sometimes totally off the wall personalities.

With the old cards, you could just flip them over, it was an easier read before, after or even during a fight. The personalities of the sport made the sport what it was/is, etc. The personalities are what makes the pre-fight build up more, or in some cases... less, exciting.

Now, on the PC, it's a little different. You have to go to another screen. Not that it's bad... I'm just thinking about it in terms of the baseball card, football card, or even boxing card concept.

What made them fun to collect and look at was that all the stats plus a photo were available at one glance.

Maybe there's a way to have most of the info available with just a few tabs? I don't know.

I just remember some of my friend's buying the game after I introduced it to them. They'd pick out a card - like Stanley Ketchel, for instance. They'd see the overall high ranking - look at the numbers, flip the card, read the bio and tell me... "Hey, I just put Stanley Ketchel into my game. Then, after playing him a few times, they'd wind up looking up information on him in books, tapes, etc. The same thing with Battling Nelson... the man who once took a bath in lemonaide.

Once you start learning about the old-timers and start reading their stories... you can gain a whole new appreciation for the sport. If ever their were a sporting simulation where truth is stranger than fiction, it's boxing.

[mrchallenge]

Originally Posted by mh2365

Until Wright decided it was wise not to throw a punch the last two rounds.

Haha, thats true, but from what I can remember, Taylor also decided against throwing any punches in the last 2 rounds as well.

[Thunder]

Originally Posted by Jim_Kidd

I just remember some of my friend's buying the game after I introduced it to them. They'd pick out a card - like Stanley Ketchel, for instance. They'd see the overall high ranking - look at the numbers, flip the card, read the bio and tell me... "Hey, I just put Stanley Ketchel into my game. Then, after playing him a few times, they'd wind up looking up information on him in books, tapes, etc. The same thing with Battling Nelson... the man who once took a bath in lemonaide.

Once you start learning about the old-timers and start reading their stories... you can gain a whole new appreciation for the sport. If ever their were a sporting simulation where truth is stranger than fiction, it's boxing.

I learned a lot about baseball history that way as a kid from an old game called "Superstar Baseball" and also tons about boxing from the old TB cards.

[mh2365]

Originally Posted by mrchallenge

Haha, thats true, but from what I can remember, Taylor also decided against throwing any punches in the last 2 rounds as well.

2 punches per round still trumps 0

[Jim_Kidd]

Originally Posted by Thunder

I learned a lot about baseball history that way as a kid from an old game called "Superstar Baseball" and also tons about boxing from the old TB cards.

I remember the boxing cards from the 80's. I still have them. They were made by a company called Kayo. I was in school still but I worked pumping gas on the side. Across the street was a convenience store that sold boxing, hockey and football cards. Each pack also came with an "Old-Timer" card. I loved that stuff.

But cards aren't in like they used to be. Even baseball cards are losing their popularity I recently read.

The Ring comes out with a yearly Almanac that has a brief bio of each of the Champions and the top contenders. Their records are also included. Something like that would be great for the game. Maybe a bi-yearly almanac, in PDF form and the updated (cutting edge updates!) for each of the Champions and top contenders. Package the whole thing in a zip or .exe file and sell it for a modest price. That would help Andreas pay a few bills while he's busy writing code.

And the Almanac could be printed out on your printer so it could be read from the comfort of the couch. Or in the bathroom where no one (hopefully) bothers you.

[Mike Rodgers]

Did I watch this fight with you? lol

www.myspace.com/mikerodgershonkytonkhitman

Originally Posted by Mr Big

Terrible job by the judges. Two of them had it 117-111 Hopkins, and the other guy had it 116-112. From a completely neutral standpoint, there is absoulutely no way that Bernard won 8-9 of the 12 rounds. I actually had it 6-5-1 for Winky, and the final punchstat numbers would substantiate that. A draw wasn't completely out of the question, but the lopsided scorecards in favor of "The Executioner" were in no way reflective of what actually transpired in the ring. A Hopkins-Calzaghe fight would be interesting, but I would have to give the edge to Joe at this point, regardless of the venue.

[mh2365]

Welcome back to these parts Mike!