No Holds Barred: Charles Farrell on PBC on NBC Boxing, Mayweather-Pacquiao, and the State of Boxing

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with our colleague, correspondent, and award-winning boxing writer, Charles Farrell, who is also co-editor of The Boxing Standard.

The return of boxing to network TV in the U.S. and the announcement that the long-awaited mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will take place May 2 have sparked much interest and discussion about the state of boxing.

Saturday's debut PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) on NBC show featured an exciting decision victory by Keith Thurman over Robert Guerrero and a not-so-exciting decision victory by Adrien Broner over John Molina Jr.

According to the Nielsen Ratings, the PBC on NBC telecast averaged 3.4 million viewers, ranking as the most-watched professional boxing broadcast in 17 years (Oscar De La Hoya’s Fight Night on FOX, 5.9 million, Mon., March 23, 1998). Viewership increased every half hour through the telecast and peaked at 4.2 million from 10:30-11 p.m. ET during the final six rounds of the Keith Thurman-Robert Guerrero fight. The PBC on NBC also led NBC to a Saturday primetime victory among adults 18-49, with a 1.08 rating in that demographic. Also, according to NBC Sports, more than 575,000 minutes (576,435) of PBC on NBC coverage was live streamed via NBC Sports Live Extra to desktops, tablets and mobile devices. The show thus has to be considered a ratings success.

We spoke with Charles Farrell by phone Sunday.

"I do think the idea of making competitive fights is a very good idea. I think star-building is a very good idea," he said.

"There's probably interest in trying to resurrect Adrien Broner. I dont think that that happened, and I think maybe they have to think about what to do with Adrien Broner at this point."

He continued, "But they probably did pretty well by Keith Thurman. And my guess is that people who were watching who were casual fans will be inclined to watch the next one. So you give it a passing grade, and I would say at this point we sort of have to wait and see."

As for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, where Mayweather puts his 47-0 record on the line, we discussed potential outcomes, including one possibility that the fight will end in a highly controversial and disputed decision, thus leading to much antipathy for boxing but also a highly lucrative rematch.

We also discussed the announcing and overall production of the debut PBC on NBC show, the need to present boxing "as boxing" on TV, the decision loss by Chinese fighter Zou Shiming to IBF flyweight champion Amnat Ruenroeng of Thailand in Macao in China, why boxing seems to rebound after each period of decline, and much, much more.

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman
EddieGoldman.com

Just an FYI. I'm in Shanghai right now. And I've been unable to very conveniently access your podcast.

I typically use itunes. But itunes won't download it. I download several other podcasts on itunes successfully, though one won't download or play (same as yours). It's Mike Malloy. As it were, I also can't freely access the Mike Malloy website (seems it is blocked).

I've visited your podomatic page, and I can listen online that way, on my PC. But I can't download the show.

And it seems like archive.org is blocked.

There might be a couple issues to note. Firstly, there is a problem with accessing your show on itunes in China, I think. I don't know if it's a bug, or it's blocked, or what have you.

Secondly, it seems to me that archive.org is blocked in China. So you might consider an additional download source, if it is important to you. It is tricky dealing with Chinese internet, to be sure.

I have a VPN, and I can use it to download blocked stuff. However, the internet in China is not the greatest, and I get a lot of dropped connections. So it can tax the patience to try to download such things, and if they don't finish within a few minutes, it's basically impossible, given my present internet.

Thanks for the info. If you know of services which are not blocked where I can upload the show, please let me know.

nodogoshi wrote:Just an FYI. I'm in Shanghai right now. And I've been unable to very conveniently access your podcast.

I typically use itunes. But itunes won't download it. I download several other podcasts on itunes successfully, though one won't download or play (same as yours). It's Mike Malloy. As it were, I also can't freely access the Mike Malloy website (seems it is blocked).

I've visited your podomatic page, and I can listen online that way, on my PC. But I can't download the show.

And it seems like archive.org is blocked.

There might be a couple issues to note. Firstly, there is a problem with accessing your show on itunes in China, I think. I don't know if it's a bug, or it's blocked, or what have you.

Secondly, it seems to me that archive.org is blocked in China. So you might consider an additional download source, if it is important to you. It is tricky dealing with Chinese internet, to be sure.

I have a VPN, and I can use it to download blocked stuff. However, the internet in China is not the greatest, and I get a lot of dropped connections. So it can tax the patience to try to download such things, and if they don't finish within a few minutes, it's basically impossible, given my present internet.

Welcome to China and the FCC/Governement Control Freak's dream of the internet for us.

Soundcloud might work. Can you access Soundcloud there, I never visited it while I was in China, so I don't know. I listened to the MMA Hour and the Comainevent Podcast while I was there. As a rule, anything that is uploaded to a large Western corporation is blocked. Self-uploads are not.

nhbnews wrote:Thanks for the info. If you know of services which are not blocked where I can upload the show, please let me know.

The best thing for you to do would be upload the mp3 file direct to your blog for people to download or listen to.

It doesn't seem like I can access soundcloud.

My blog is using Blogger, a Google product, so that is probably blocked, too. I don't read Chinese but need some site that is not blocked there.

nhbnews wrote:My blog is using Blogger, a Google product, so that is probably blocked, too. I don't read Chinese but need some site that is not blocked there.

The only accessible websites I can think of are Chinese ones.

nodogoshi can confirm if he can access your blog. I'm in America now. Back when I was in China, I did not yet discover your podcast, so I can't confirm what I can access about it. I could download and listen to the Comain Event Podcast while I was there. So, if he can access your blog and you just upload the mp3 like the CME does, that would be a solution.
Another way, would be to upload it in a video format to websites like Vimeo, Dailymotion and other not-Youtube sites. Those can all be accessed in China.

I can't access Dailymotion now. I could the last time I was in China, seems it's been blocked.

I don't have time right now, but I don't mind looking into this a little more later.