Even if you think this Saturday nights contest between the comebacking Floyd Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas is a physical mismatch, another hand-picked Mayweather foe or a high-priced walkout bout, you have to hand it to the organizers of this pay-per-view promotion.
They have put together one of the very best undercards in years. You may question the main event but there’s no questioning the two fights that will precede it.
While other promoters have promised ’spectacular’ supporting bills and shoved Yuri Boreman down our throats, ’Numero Uno’ has two highly anticipated bouts in Michael Katsidis-Vicente Escobedo and the rematch between Chris John and Rocky Juarez. Say what you will about the featured bout- and there are vastly differing opinions- but top to bottom, this is a pretty damn good night of boxing.
This certainly beats having Butterbean and Mia St. John on the card.
" What we really need to do is create more events and not just one fight. I think you do have a certain audience for big boxing pay-per-views and we really need to focus on giving young, emerging talent an opportunity to really take their game to the next level and that’s why we wanted to put together some of these guys, some of these great match-ups and really give the fight fans not just an opportunity to just see a great main event, but really a great card," said Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, which is handling this show.
The cynic will point out that the reason why Mayweather-Marquez has a robust undercard attached to it, is because it absolutely has to have one. Given the widespread opinion that neither Mayweather or Marquez have fared well as the A-side of a promotion. And there’s more than a grain of truth to that. Those undercards that featured the above-mentioned St. John and ’Bean, did huge numbers because the featured attraction was a guy by the name of Oscar De La Hoya. The truth of the matter is that while the die-hard fans yearn for strong undercards, big pay-per-view numbers are procured when the general public- who are casual fans, at best- come inside the tent to take a look. They don’t care who fights in the first two hours of a pay-per-view telecast, they only care about the main event.
Don’t agree with me?
The De La Hoya-Mayweather pay-per-view set records across the board, getting well over two million purchases. But can you recall anything memorable happening on that undercard before Oscar and Floyd got into the ring? The last two cards featuring Manny Pacquiao( against De La Hoya and then Ricky Hatton) had embarrassingly bad lead-up bouts put together by Golden Boy and Top Rank. Yet, those shows did strong business.
It’s like the movie industry, you can have the great ensemble cast for a feature film, but you need an A-lister like Will Smith or Tom Cruise on the marquee to make it go at the box-office. In boxing, the main event, sells the show. While Mayweather-Marquez will most likely have the far superior undercard than what will be put together for November 14Th when Pacquiao faces Miguel Cotto, it’s the latter fight that will do much stronger numbers.
One of the reasons why the UFC has been able to make up ground on boxing is that their pay-per-view shows are much deeper in talent and competitive fare.
On that issue, Schaefer says," I’ve actually heard that before from people,’ Oh, look at what MMA’s doing, look at what UFC’s doing’ and so on, that they have much better entertainment value. But the thing is, it’s easy to say that because they have a totally different compensation model. And if you get away with paying 20-percent of your net revenue pot to your fighters to compensate your athletes, then you can automatically afford to put those kind of fights together. But if it’s the other way around, like we in boxing have, then somehow it hampers your ability to put these great cards together.
" So it really takes, in order to put this kind of card together, like we’ve done here for September the 19Th, the understanding from the principals, meaning Golden Boy, Mayweather Promotions, to really make an investment. Because that is what this undercard is. This is really an investment in the sport because you have two fights with Escobedo and Katsidis and Chris John and Rocky Juarez, both of these fights could be on HBO. As a matter of fact, if you could take these two fights, everybody would say,’ What a great ’Boxing After Dark’ that is.’ It would be an amazing ’Boxing After Dark’."
The license fee for a ’Boxing After Dark’ can range between $500,000 and a million bucks. One of the reasons why most promoters don’t put on solid undercards is because it’s costly to do so.
" This is a really expensive undercard, we’re really doing that to see if the fight fans out there are going to say,’ Hey, guys, y’know what? Golden Boy, Mayweather Promotions, great job. We are going to buy that pay-per-view. We want to be a part of that. We want to support your efforts. We are in your corner.’ Just like we are in the fight fans corner in bringing them this kind of thing.
" So we hope it’s going to work."
24/7 vs. HARD KNOCKS
Am I the only one who prefers ’Hard Knocks’ much more than 24/7? I just think 24/7 is simply over-produced and has really become formulaic. While ’Hard Knocks’, which followed the Cincinnati Bengals through their training camp this summer, is much more real and organic. Yes, they both are stylishly shot and edited, but you get the sense that there’s no way the HBO producers are asking Marvin Lewis to do anything ten times just so they can get the exact shot they are looking for. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s my gut feel.
Also, Mayweather, whether he’s trying to be a good guy or bad guy, is just a bad actor in general and is unconvincing and contrived in either role. I think this promotion and 24/7 would be much better off if Mayweather and Chad Ochocinco could change roles.
There’s a ’been there, done that’ feel with 24/7. But I look forward to ’Hard Knocks’ every summer. The last episode where they followed the last few remaining Bengals who were on the proverbial ’bubble’ was riveting stuff. Most fans had probably never heard of these guys- in fact, most folks will most likely recognize only two Bengals, Ochocinco and Carson Palmer- but as their livelihoods and childhood dreams were on the line, you couldn’t help but feel for these young men.
SHOWTIME SUPER SIX
As I like to say, both Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward did ’the Chris Rock’ on Saturday by easily defeating the likes of Gusmyr Perdomo and Shelby Pudwill. In other words, they did what they were supposed to do in dispatching over-matched foes.
Now, they move forward with ’the Super Six’ and they face each other on November 21st at the Oracle in Oakland, California. It’s an intriguing match-up. Ward’s movement and athleticism will give Kessler fits, I’m sure, but Ward has never been up to this level before.
It’s just one of many anticipated fights of this super middleweight round-robin that was put together by Showtime.
Source: maxboxing.com
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