By Don Donatello
Currently, there are two gooses that lay golden Pay-Per-View eggs, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Each of their fights sell around 1 million plus per PPV. Those are huge numbers in comparison to the PPV fight between Chad Dawson and Bernard Hopkins. In a fight between Hopkins and Dawson a few months ago, it is circulated to only selling around 40K in PPV sales.
A PPV event that involves either Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather produces in the tens of millions of dollars. Las Vegas, the promoters, the fighters, the trainers, managers, the casinos, restaurants, and etc., all reap monetarily when Pacquiao or Mayweather have a fight at any venue.
Two gold egg laying gooses are better than one, that’s a given. The boxing gods are not going to kill one of their golden laying gooses. Why would they? As long as both gooses keep laying those gold eggs, they will keep the status quo for as long as they possibly can. That is just good business sense. In business, you do what needs to be done to maximize profits, not give in to wants that negatively impact profits. Sorry, that’s the reality of a profit driven entity like professional boxing.
The fans want to see the two best fighters fight one another. So what do the boxing gods do? They give the fans the big BS. One party points the fingers at the other party for not wanting the fight to happen. They take turns blaming each other to deflect the heat back at their counterpart. In reality the boxing gods are happy the way it is. Why wouldn’t they be? The millions keep flowing without facing the two golden gooses against each other.
Here is what is going to happen. The mega-fight will eventually happen, but not while the two gooses keeps selling well by them selves. Boxing is a business. They will do what is necessary to maximize their profits. When one of the gooses can no longer produce the desired gold, that is when the fans will see a forward motion toward a possible fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather. But they will stretch and milk the gooses until one or two of them can no longer produce without fighting each other.
Bob Arum said he knows the real PPV numbers on the Floyd Mayweather vs. Victor Ortiz fight. I’m sure he does know. I highly doubt that the Mayweather/Ortiz fight did anywhere near what Golden Boy Promotions claimed of 1.25 million in PPV sales. Mayweather’s gold is beginning to lose its’ luster, but not enough to push him into fighting Manny Pacquiao yet. By now the biggest block that purchases PPV boxing event, the casual boxing fan, are on the decline for a Mayweather fight. Who could blame them after a series non-delivery of an entertaining fights from Mayweather. Meanwhile, Pacquiao’s PPV numbers are rising. His last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez was Pacquiao’s biggest selling PPV fight.
Have you noticed that Floyd Mayweather is now warming up to fight against Manny Pacquiao. Manny is also warming up by taking less of the purse split. That is because Pacquiao is looking to finish his career in boxing as he prepares for his political aspiration. Bob Arum is seen as the one who is moving away from a Mayweather/Pacquiao fight. Arum will wait to see if Mayweather’s PPV numbers decline again in his next fight. With Mayweather’s PPV number in decline, Arum knows he has the momentum and is in the driver’s seat with Pacquiao. Mayweather can no longer sell like in the past with his cherry picked opponents. Aside from Pacquiao, the only opponents I see to get Mayweather back to PPV gold is against a known fighter like Miguel Cotto. Style wise, that fight is a difficult fight. So look for a possible Cotto/Mayweather fight to happen around May of 2012, providing Bob Arum does not work a rematch between Cotto and Pacquiao first.
Arum wants to keep Miguel Cotto, but Arum must deliver a big fight to Cotto to retain him. Cotto is a more exciting fighter than Juan Manuel Marquez, and also younger. JMM can not attract flies to dung on his own.
Bob Arum is after the casual boxing fan. Don’t think that Arum’s team is not monitoring and gauging the casual fans on the Internet. Hardcore boxing fans are tiny compared to the casual fans.
The boxing gods and those who gain monetarily are not going to voluntarily kill their golden goose. The casual fans are the only group that has the means to kill a golden goose.
When they no longer feed the goose, it will stop laying golden eggs. The gooses are still being fed. So don’t count your chickens just yet.
So tell me, do you honestly believe the boxing gods will risk losing their million dollar goose if they don’t have to? Boxing is first a business, a business second, and third a business. The last time I looked, business’ sole reason they exist is to maximize profits.
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