seanz25

22 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

im thinking a straight up 4-fold. DC, Mousasi, Alves, Brooks. It comes in at around 9/1.

Gonna throw Cavillo into that, lurking online seems to see it should be a comfortable win. Comes in at 14/1

Some good odds currently on 210, I've got in early as I reckon they'll change closer to Saturday. Got a double of DC via sub & Moussasi via TKO @ 8.94/1. 

For the history on MMA/UFC etc - I can't recommend Art Davie's book enough. Really insightful.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Legal-Inside-Story-Created/dp/0991275640

He's got all the potential in the world in my eyes, charismatic, exciting, still very young I think he's only 21 or 22 so room to improve his game massively still.

But at the same time quite how serious he's taking it is debatable, hopefully spewing up hot chocolate live on the telly after his last fight is enough to get him to sort himself out a bit. I could easily see him joining that breed of young UK fighters we saw last week at UFC London, all with bags of potential in the future.

Unfortunately Fishgolds fight is off the card. And they'd spent some money marketing the card around him as well as Paddy.

Having attended a couple of events in the press section around the country now, you hear some interesting stories. Specifically Pimbletts love for "having to much of a good time" outside of fighting.

Would happily see Haye get chin'd here, but I can't see it actually happening. Weight differences, Hayes still a very good fighter if not the best in the division still. Skilled and possess power. Only way I see it happening is if Haye hasn't taken this remotely seriously with all his training out on the cruise liner/Bellew has genuinely got under his skin and distracted him. Otherwise should be an easy KO win for David.

Good show last night - Considering they lost a number of bouts, including the Vaughan fight seemingly both myself and Chunk thought was still on. The indigo is a cool little venue to run there London shows in. Kinda got an ICW vibe from it, the front section was really rowdy, whether it came off like that on TV I'm not to sure. Just a little odd looking up at the cage on the stage. Pimblett, Fishgold, Dan Hardy & John Gooden where also knocking about in the crowd which was quite cool. MVP was also in the building but kept himself quite hidden and didn't do any interviews, not sure if he was shown on TV? But I'd heard camera guys saying they originally planned on cutting to a shot of him along with Chase and Status who where also in attendance.

Thought Amoussou looked real good and may well get a shot in the UFC sooner or later, Wilde took a huge step backwards in his career and was unlucky in a fight he was completely dominating. And the liver shot Wheeler delivered last night, the second I saw/heard that I knew it was game over. Super powerful shot that landed and the damage was instant.

Shameless plug for my own report - http://seanwalford.com/cage-warriors-80-report-amoussou-extends-unbeaten-run-to-7-wildes-path-to-gold-halted

Not involved with the YouTube stuff currently, hopefully further down the line though I will be, they tend to cover Northern England/Irish shows more than anything right now due to the location of the guys, although I'm hoping to start bringing more coverage of promotions down South.

I only started writing/producing content for them back in October. Can safely say though and this is without me being biased they're the best place on the web covering UK MMA right now, so if you're looking to get into it more check out some of their coverage. All super passionate guys. 

I'm actually doing live coverage for severemma.com for CWs tomorrow. Like egg said, some good stuff on there. Tim Wilde was fairly exciting in his last outing, Vaughan Lee should also be interesting to see where he's at right now.

What an odd story.

WrestleUK's a parody account right? We've established this surely?

Eddie Hearn is 100% in on this. Matchroom have a deal with Stubhub. They're a sub company of Ticketmaster who re-sell tickets at inflated prices as if it's a secondary market. When in fact it's just ticketmaster lumping a load of their own allocation over there. In his most recent interview with IFL he even states that he knows people don't like the deal with Stubhub etc but it's to valuable a deal to let go and basically just says there's 90 thousand tickets you'll get one if you want one sorta thing.

Yeah I was coming on here to say that. Which still leaves me thinking it'll do under 10,000 buys. I can't see many paying cash for just one fight, although if the free stuff on ITV 4 involving Price is good fun people may just go fuck it I'll pay for the Eubank fight, I've got nothing else on this evening, maybe that's what they're aiming for?

Lot's of people putting this down as ITV 4 just testing the waters of there PPV platform. Seeing how it handles etc. Might be smart long-term. They could have a disaster with the platform for all we know and damage there reputation before they even get properly started.

Reckon if Barnatt wins that he'll get a second shot in the UFC.

Wand got my vote last year and I'd happily give it to him again. But Egg's equally been posting some great event previews, thoughts etc this year so he get's my vote.

That IFL interview confirmed for me once and for all that Eubank SR is unbearable. His views on boxing seem completely bizarre, sacking of the GGG fight on jr's behalf, purely down to a commentary issue is beyond dumb to me, his reason given still doesn't justify pissing away millions of cash and a huge fight. He manages to basically objectify his own kid, claiming he's the finished "product," he seems content in using this itv PPV deal as a positive spin for being such an arse to work with as both Warren and Hearn have claimed. 

I also find his weird obsession with pausing every few sentences to think of a 'big' word to use at the end of the sentence to make him seem more intellectual is one of the most irritating and embarrassing thing's on the planet.

The sad thing is Jr's an exciting fighter, I like watching him as do many others. He's such an easily marketable boxer, I'd go out on a limb and say he could be doing solid numbers headlining his own PPV's on Sky if Eddie had managed to promote him full-time. He's pretty much got th package, good look, exciting fights, dad's name to use etc. 

Franks such a bitter old man. Jesus it hurts.

Eddie was on the money regarding the PPV deal. Nobody's paying money to see Eubank fight a bum. Jr's a draw, but I still personally feel he's only a PPV headliner draw next to someone of similar stature as him or bigger, he's not AJ where people will pay to see him KO any old bloke. The undercard need's to be stacked but I just don't see that happening. Matchroom/Sky and Box Nation/BT have most the other major draws in boxing over here currently. Who can ITV really pluck out of the air to sell this too.  

On another Hearn related note I loved his McGregor impression of "Who da fuck is dat guy" btw. For all Hearn claims in his interviews to not really pay that much attention to MMA/UFC I don't buy any of it. More and more you see elements the UFC have been successful with incorporated into Matchroom shows. 

This iTV deal is really odd no? 

I look at it in two ways - One they re-launch there boxing schedule slowly and work there way up into a PPV marketable event. Or alternatively they kick it off with a big name fight to lead into the rest of the year. They've chosen neither. 

This is gold. Warren is so bitter.

 

I know Joshua is popular but I just didn't think you'd get 400/500K over here. We've never really been a particularly big PPV buying country, have we? And it's not like Molina is a big name fight either. If he was fighting someone like Klitschko as originally planned I could see it. Haye and Fury against Joshua are the two fights I can see really doing big over here if they ever happen. If AJ can do around half a mil with Eric Molina then that's pretty impressive.

AJ's show do crazy numbers, even against duff opponents, it's seriously impressive. The thing is, i dont many people who actually buy the PPV's, everybody in work watches the fights live but i ask around and very few pay, they all hook up dodgy streams.

 

Makes you wonder what the numbers would be like if streams didnt exist.

 

Yup that's a valid point. But to a slightly smaller extent we don't know the true figures of how many people hit up bars, pubs and casino's to watch his fights here. Those numbers don't get calculated yet I know they'd add a ton of overall viewership.

The thing is the PPV figures bounded around over here are rumors/speclation as Sky don't officially release them. I'd say though the fact Hearn seems content to keep throwing Joshua in with relative nobody's on PPV would be a good indication he's doing big business on the platform. They'd have gone and had bigger opponents if so.

As much interest as the Whyte/Chisora thing has drawn I'm not convinced it's doing 300k+ - It's an expensive season with Christmas just round the corner, people are trying to save cash here and there. I've spoken to a number of casuals this week that although they seem to have an interest it's more for Whyte/Chisora and they all think it's a big of a laugh with WWE-esque shenanigans. They'll likely stream it rather than buy it.

 

 

I think the build up has been great. Good for boxing? In ways it isn't but in others it is, people are talking about it and thats what really matters. I just really think the fight is gonna suck

 

Yeah, as much as it pains me to say this GAD got it spot on in his IFL interview about this sort of thing "we don't want it, but when it does happen it doesn't do any damage to the interest of the event, it's what will take the PPV to half a million"

Can't bare Chisora. Whyte comes across well in his interviews with IFL. Seems like a genuinely funny bloke. Worth scoping out.

I've written a small piece on all the drama over at Severe MMA. Complete plug but if anyone gets the chance to check it out I'd appreciate it http://severemma.com/2016/12/combat-sports-controversy-creates-cash/

Sounds like it was close to being completely cancelled. Belt is no longer on the line due to the table throwing incident.