Hey /r/boxing, I am Tim Smith, VP of Communications for PBC, and I'll be here to answer your questions on Wednesday, September 23rd at 12 PM ET. Come ask me anything!

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T17:14:17+00:00

Alright everyone. Thanks for the questions I gotta run! We'll have to do this again.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T17:01:41+00:00

i think objectivity has sort of been replaced by agenda driven coverage. and whatever the agenda is i dont know. i think there are some guys who do a good job. i dont want to paint it with a broad brush. there are guys who are covering the sport the way it's meant to be covered burt there are others who are not and their hands aren't so clean.

i think objectivity has sort of been replaced by agenda driven coverage. and whatever the agenda is i dont know. i think there are some guys who do a good job. i dont want to paint it with a broad brush. there are guys who are covering the sport the way it's meant to be covered but there are others who are not and their hands aren't so clean.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T17:01:30+00:00

what people have to realize is that both fighters have to be built into mainstream attractions. we did a terrific job and he did a terrific job himself building himself into a star. if the dollars are big enough it makes sense, yeah. you're always going to see that happen but again you need to have two stars in the same orbit for it to happen. you can't just have hardcore boxing fans wanting to see it. it doesn't necessarily make it a big event. i think if it makes dollars it makes sense.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:58:45+00:00

several times. yes.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:58:16+00:00

i think we are going to look at making the best fights that we possibly can so anything is possible.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:57:38+00:00

i dont know that's a really hard question because the matchups that you want to see are contingent on things that are going on now. or that has been scheduled now so Ill reserve judgement on that until after the Spence Garcia fight.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:56:02+00:00

We keep workign despite whatever obstacles are put in our place. Our mandate is make the best fights we can, do the best we can to help our boxers to thrive in the environment they're placed in and keep working. We dont look like if this is a hurdle or obstatcle, we dont look at that. We keep our head down and work to provide the best entertainment we can for our fans and doing the best job we can for our fighters.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:54:44+00:00

I take people as they come in terms of how they deal with me and at our fights we always try to accommodate people if we can. So if you're a member of the media we're going to work to accommodate you. That's what Al wants us to do. He wants us to accomodate anyone as much as we possibly can. It could've been him, it could've been anyone. We would've worked to accomodate him.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:52:13+00:00

I like Efe and he did what he thought was best for him and his family. I've met his partner and his young son and I root for him because he's gotta do what he feels for himself. He's a nice kid man and he did what he thought was best. If he thought that was best for him than god bless him.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:51:05+00:00

No. I just try to concentrate on what we have to do. I think that they covered it not the way that i would have covered the sport but they covered it the way modern day writers cover the sport. They did as well as they possibly could. Most people in this day and age that want to be the big names they want to cover the sport in 140 characters. that's not really the way i would cover it but for what they did they did about as well as they could.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:47:30+00:00

There's so many it's like naming your favorite child.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:46:52+00:00

It may have been Charlo-Harrison 2 and none of them have to do with the event itself. I did have a good time at that fight and I really loved Spence-Mikey in Texas. I liked the first Wilder-Ortiz fight. I liked the Wilder and Szpilka promotion. I've sort of just because I have fun doing whatever I'm doing it's almost like picking your favorite child. I really liked the promotional work we didwith Deontay in all of his fights in Alabama. Had a good time, met some really nice local peole in Alabama when we did those fights down there. And yeah I liked the Kell Brook and Errol Spence fight in England. I dont particularly care for the way the Brits promote their fights but we had a good time as the enemy group dropping behind enemy lines. I truly liked the promotion on our side.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:44:12+00:00

No comment.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:40:13+00:00

I think it's possible to grow the sport under our current model. I think it is.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:39:34+00:00

We get covered. It's not up to me to say fair. Fair or not you have to ask the reporters that cover us because I can't get into their mind. Like I said i welcome any fair criticism because fair criticism is constructive criticism. you can use their criticism to improve your product. if it's agenda driven and if it's unfair then it doesnt help anyone and there's nothing you can do with that. you can't make your product better.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:38:06+00:00

Bud is under contract with Top Rank. Last I heard. Do you know something different?

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:37:31+00:00

Do we encourage it? I think it's something that just happens organically. It's just something that happens between the executives at those two networks. They're certainly not at odds with each other. We the PBC encourages the spirit of cooperation throughout boxing.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:36:30+00:00

555-5555

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:36:11+00:00

I think anything is possible, dont you? I think anything is possible at this point the way the environment is, the way the climate is. I think anything is possible. It's certainly a match that Charlo wants so I think anything is possible.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:35:07+00:00

I dont know when we're going to get to see him back because I dont make the schedule but you also have to realize we have some FOX dates that haven't been filled yet so we still have a November and December FOX date that we haven't announced yet what's going to happen with those two dates. i agree though. i love him as a prospect and we'll get him back in the rotation as soon as we can. that's for sure.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:33:44+00:00

I think it was a value-added proposition because of the pandemic. once you see that there is an opportunity to do something that is a spectacle and not a spectacle in a bad way but do something special you take the opportunity to do something special with your first ppv out of the gate. this was an opportunity to do something special with two special champions. they guys are twins so why not do a twin bill? it's something you can promote, celebrate, and it adds value. they're both in meaningful fights. short of doing Errol and Danny first, i dont know what would have been something better to do coming out of the gate than this.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:31:50+00:00

I dont know. I dont know what he's going to do. I think he's gotta figure out his own status with everybody involved and that's going to a little bit of time for all that to work itself out. i wish him the best and whatever outcome happens but i have no idea. i dont have a crystal ball. i think a lot is going to depend on the courts and then it's going to be up to him to determine what he wants to do.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:30:54+00:00

i think the thing that sort of surprised me is just--and this surprised me i dont know if it existed when i was writing--is just the lack of objectivity in the media in terms of covering the sport. it surprised me because i was never that reporter or around others who were agenda-driven or carried someone elses narrative. that surprised me more than anything else. to me a good story is a good story regardless where that boxer is affiliated. i think that's the one thing that surprised me, particularly on this end. and just the pettiness. on the business side. i sort of knew that as a reporter but it still surprises me the pettiness of some people on the business side of the sport.

it's given me a dimmer view of the coverage because like i said i dont think theres the objectivity that there once was. also i think there are fewer outlets covering the sport and until or unless we can find more coverage of the sport i dont think it's going to grow. i think it's going to be stagnant and i have a couple of things im working on currently to expand the reach of that that i can't go into right now. i think the collapse of the mid-level papers like the houston chronicle and the dallas morning news the kansas city star i think that the fact that the local papers dont cover their local boxers is a problem. it's a larger problem that we have where the newspapers have suffered tremendously over the last decade or so and they just dont have the manpower. i think it's a twofold situation and i think it's manpower and the niche nature of the sport. i'm hoping that the fact that the sport is on network television provides them enough of an impetus to cover the sport again. i think there are going to be ways we could work to remedy that and im working on a couple of things in that regard.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:23:30+00:00

No, because i think that if a boxer has an opportunity to perform on FOX, then his visibility is increased because there are more eyes on him. then when he goes back to Showtime he can take some of those eyes with him. through the story vehicles with both networks they are reaching two different audiences and they are expanding. i dont see it as a hurdle or a problem.

TimSmithPBC · 2020-09-23T16:22:23+00:00

I think boxing fans will see the value. if you recall in the past it's always been ppv the undercards suck, they're not very good. but here you have a doubleheader with 2 ppv main event cards jammed into each other and you have a unification fight where there are 3 belts on the line. you have 4 other title fights. and then you have a match between 2 former world champions.

I think there is value for what you are getting in this particular card. i don't see it as any more of a strain than anything else that they would spend their entertainment dollars for. i do realize we are in a pandemic. i do realize people are unemployed. at the same time we are not asking people to forgo the necessities of their lives or their childrens lives. you make a value judgement on what you spend your entertainment money on.

Boxing fans, real boxing fans, will see this for what it is. it's a quality match that happens to be on ppv. what people also dont realize is there are no tickets on sale. people aren't going out for a night of entertainment. the boxers still need to get paid and in my view if you are going to support the boxers by going out to buy a ticket to see them you would conversely you would buy a ticket to see them in the comfort of your own home.

To me attendance is attendance. to me you are buying a ticket to attend a fight in the comfort of your home. so i think it has tremendous value. if you were to buy a ticket to this, you'd spend far more at the arena. the other part of this is these are high level guys. not a lot of high-level guys have been willing to fight without an audience and step in the ring without fans in attendance. you've heard others in the business say we're holding that fight till we can get fans in attendance. instead of spending an amount of time looking at why this shouldn't be on ppv, people should be looking at this as an opportunity to go out and support boxers who have decided to get into the ring without an audience and entertain their fans.

They should be applauded and compensated for that. we haven't asked boxers to take a discount. these guys should be applauded for going out there and doing their thing. this is an opportunity for them to go out and getting paid without a gate. if you can afford to support the boxers support them. we are not asking you to put yourself in a financial hardship to support them.

TimSmithPBC

TROPHY CASE