Knockout, the hot television series which includes today’s hottest trainers, is a draw to the public and to all entities involved. The fact is that there are no losers when it to comes to this popular reality television show. This story will explain with facts why that is.
Let’s start with the participants. For Floyd Mayweather Sr. the show serves as an outlet to show the public his skill and wit. In addition to training his son, pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr., Big Floyd has made 9 world champions in the last 15 years and currently trains IBF lightweight champion Mickey Bey.
The opportunity is much more important for Roy Jones Jr., Shane Mosley and John Scully as it gives them a chance to showcase their talents as world class trainers and start them on the next phase of their incredible careers.
Jones and Mosley are already training some of today’s top fighters such as former champ Jean Pascal and current WBA super lightweight champion Jessie Vargas who are trained by Jones while knockout artist Curtis Stevens and prospect Shane Mosley Jr. (who won by knockout on last week’s ESPN Friday Night Fights undercard) are trained by Mosley Sr.
Former title challenger John Scully is also no stranger to working with elite boxers, having trained former light heavyweight kingpin Chad Dawson. He currently is training a talented crop of amateur fighters who hope to become future stars.
This platform gives the show’s up and coming boxers a chance to train with some of boxing’s all-time greats and it gives them a chance to become great by working alongside boxing royalty.
Now onto the network. NUVOtv is a small network that has had success with big names such as Jennifer Lopez and Mario Lopez. They have created shows and concert series, but no other show on the network has brought out the star power in sports that Knockout has. Now that NUVOtv has purchased Fuse and has become (from a distribution standpoint) a major network, it is going to need major programing and Knockout delivers that needed KO punch.
The show may only be in it’s second season but critics and writers are already saying that the show should become boxing’s biggest weekly show. The last series to even compare this to was the Contender which when it was on NBC cost $2,000,000 dollars per episode according to the I.M.D.B. which lists the cost of the entire first season of Knockout at $750,000 which includes 6 episodes and a live fight card for the network. That low total seems almost impossible to pull off. What is more surprising is that there are rumors that the budget for season one was only about $450,000.
To give the readers a better understanding, boxing production of any live fight card without talent included (just with cameras, crew and satellite up link) before you pay a fighter is about $100,000.00 dollars. So for the network to pull this off at this price is incredible. To get this show which is as good or better than the Contender at this rate is pure genius by NUVOtv and a major win.
The first season was shot in Las Vegas, Nevada where you can find a boxing match almost weekly while this season was filmed at Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Connecticut which usually doesn’t have the elite names in boxing performing there.
The venue at Foxwoods usually is home to up and coming rising stars, but last week Mosley Sr. went on the air on the ESPN fight card to discuss the venue and the show. Mosley along with Mayweather Sr., Roy Jones Jr., John Scully and hometown hero Vinny Paz (who made a special appearance) showed the fans that Foxwoods is making serious strides to KO the competition in the surrounding areas and showed creative ways to bring the best names to Foxwoods via sports and entertainment.
When Knockout brings together all of these fighters and celebrity trainers along with the network, venue and most importantly the fans, it is a win-win for everybody.
Filming is currently wrapping up on the west coast where more star power such as Al Bernstein, Zab Judah and other stars will be added to help make Knockout the biggest boxing show in television history.
