We all know how shitty most PPV's are,

Essentially, the boxing public is now asked to cough up $50 or more for every Tom, Dick, and Harry, boxing card that darkens the PPV landscape. Most fight fans and historians will argue that this is what is driving boxing further away from the mainstream. Truth be told that boxing hasn't been mainstream to general public audiences since around the mid 80's. This was the time that closed circuit fights and PPV were reserved for the matches that REALLY belonged on closed circuit and PPV. HBO was doing decent fights back than and Showtime in the mid-80's began with a tape delayed broadcast of the closed circut showing of Hagler-Mugabi, which was broadcast live on March 10, 1986.

The boxing public knows the abuses of PPV today. $50 for one big fight that isn't a lot of times even a big fight, which follows undercard matches that are often ESPN material. Today's economic times demonstrate the struggle of adding this expenditure to already $90-$175 cable/dish tv bills before ANY PPV fights are even ordered. But now we have a new worse. Competing PPV cards, or PPV shooting itself in the foot by going against regular subscription HBO/Showtime fights the same night!

I have not researched the first card that did this, but it's a disturbing trend. Tomorrow night we have an HBO/Showtime caliber fight in Morales-Diaz masquerading as a PPV against what should be the much better Marquez-Vasquez rematch on Showtime. My hope is that competition from the network offering the better and quality "free to subscribers" fight, (in this case Marquez-Vasquez II) will force the greed and corruption of the PPV industry to stop the bullshit of offering competing fights on the same night. Not only does it suck for the fans being forced to choose, it's a stupid marketing strategy. Business-wise, the PPV promoter could lose lets say 50% of projected income on a PPV fight when a regular quality HBO/Showtime non-main event is offered the same night. What would you rather do? Watch the better product for your monthly cable fee and nothing else, or being forced to pay $44.95 plus franchise fees and tax for a fight that has no business on PPV in the first place?

How difficult can it be to schedule two big rival fights so that they do NOT fall on the same night? Fans should not have to pick and choose which fight to watch under these types of circumstances. If promoters and matchmakers would not have competing cards on the same night and put 90% of boxing matches on regular HBO or Showtime where they should be in the first place, boxing would not have this problem. The only good that comes out of this is the regular network (in this case Showtime) having the better product at the same time as the HBO undeserved PPV show.

Concerning what qualifies as a PPV for HBO these days, I honestly believe that this network is stuck in idiot mode.

Jack

I agree though the competing of PPV's not to mention PPV in general is hurting the exposure of some good fights...

I think it comes down to the fact that Boxing is split up with different interest that it's obviously harder to coordinate these fights the way they should. Not saying they can't do it because I believe they can, it's just more people and entities must work together to make it happen. Just like Arum and DLH are making fights and other promoters are getting together making these fights now we need the networks and the promoters putting on these PPV's to get on board...

...

Not getting this PPV and I don't expect this one to do many sales. I will be watching Vasquez/Marquez, which I expect to be a better fight anyhow, then I will catch the replay of Morales/Diaz next week on HBO.

The last Morales PPV I ordered was Pacquiao I. None since then have really interested me (well Pac II did, but for whatever reason I didn't pull the trigger on getting it). I'm a big fan of just watching the replays the following week on HBO unless it is a real high profile fight or unless my boys that come over are willing to throw $5 in each or something (which means it has to be an action fight).

I've been complaining about PPVs for too long and finally, as of the Winky-Hopkins fight, I've decided to act on it by not buying the fights that aren't worthy. (I think I've bought just about every HBO/Showtime PPV over the past 7 or 8 years until Hopkins-Winky.) I don't know how long I'll be able to last, but I'm going to do my best to make sure that the corrupt, greedy monopolists (HBO, Arum, Golden Boy, King ect.) don't get rewarded for this shit any longer. Because these few entities are selfishly killing a great sport and I'm not going to play along anymore. It might not be much, but it makes me feel good - kinda like if I just bought a Prius or something.

I don't think HBO will be replaying this fight next week. They're distributing the PPV but I don't believe it's actually an official HBO PPV. I don't think Lampley et al will be calling it. It's more like the Hopkins-Joppy, Spinks-Mayorga, Ruiz-Rahman show from a few years ago.

Having the option of paying $30 to $50 for a fight you'd usually have to drive hundreds or thousands of miles to see is better than not having the option at all. I don't see what the problem is.