ESPN got back into the pay per view business in boxing for the first time in a long time this past weekend for the Terence Crawford vs Amir Khan fight.
Overall it went down like a sack of spuds.
Granted, most thought Amir Khan didn’t have much of a chance to beat pound for pound star Terence Crawford going into the fight anyway.
But that being said, the ending of the fight where Khan pulled out of the bout following a low blow added insult to injury for those in the US who were asked to fork out seventy bucks for what turned out to be a woeful night of boxing.
Speaking on TV following the fight ESPN pundit and renowned boxing coach Teddy Atlas has pulled no punches in his thoughts on the bout saying:
“The fans got robbed. $70 for pay per view.”
He went on to say:
“You’re (Khan) getting $5 million dollars. I’ll say it again — you’re getting $5 million dollars. Part of your responsibility is to overcome. They did not live up to that responsibility. Again, for you people out there who want to jump and hat, listen, I’m not in his body. I get it. I’ve been in this business over 40 years. I’ve seen fighters overcome worse than that.”
He continued:
“Now am I saying he has the threshold, he has the capacity — he being Khan to o overcome that? Obviously not. Or maybe not the mindset. Because he made $6 million to fight Canelo. I said it on this program before — he’s a better manager, promoter and money maker than a fighter at this stage of his career. He knows how to put himself in a position to make money and he has made money but again, at the peril of the audience who pays for that money. It hurts boxing. This is not good for boxing.”
The above carries a lot of weight when you consider Atlas actually works for ESPN and he has essentially blasted his own network and employer ESPN for last weekend’s garbage.
Teddy Atlas — never one to mince his words.
