By Don Donatello
HBO dumps problematic Golden Boy Promotions(GBP) in a smart move. Along with GBP went Floyd Mayweather Jr. Showtime/CBS can’t be happy with the PPV numbers in Mayweather’s fight against Roberto “Ghost” Guerrero. Showtime paid Mayweather for a six fight deal that’s worth in the hundreds of millions. More PPV disappointment to come for Showtime?
Mayweather’s history of being risk-averse and cherry picking his opponents will be a big negative for Showtime. Mayweather has no worthy fight since Manny Pacquiao arrived onto the scene that people will be talking about 20 years from now. And Showtime will foot the bill for fights such as the Guerrero vs. Mayweather snoozer. Mayweather fan boys extols on the greatness of Mayweather’s performance against Guerrero. In reality, Guerrero was cherry picked, a B rated fighter that the Mayweather camp tried to promote as a legitimate opponent. This time the buying public has begun to see Mayweather’s cherry picking nature, and they didn’t buy it.
So far there is no official release from Showtime on the PPV numbers for Floyd Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero. Historically, when a fight does good PPV numbers, the official numbers are released early. There must be some finger pointing and sweating in the Showtime back room right about now. If the rumored number of around 887K PPV sold for Mayweather vs. Guerrero is true, heads will roll.
The horizon looks bad for Showtime. Mayweather now wants to fight Canelo Alvarez only at 147 pound, the welterweight limit. Of course he does, why would Mayweather change his stripes at this stage of his career. Mayweather was bloodied against a faded Miguel Cotto at 154 pounds. Mayweather knows Canelo would be too strong for him at 154. Mayweather can’t wait for Canelo to get worn out to fight him as he did against Miguel Cotto.
Meantime, Manny Pacquiao vs Brandon Rios will do big numbers. Everyone wants to see if a motivated Pacquiao still has it or not after losing his last two fights against Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez. In reality, Pacquiao beat Timothy Bradley, and Pacquiao was going in for a kill against a badly hurt Marquez when he tripped and Marquez landed a lucky punch. You can check out the video on YouTube of the lucky punch.
Marquez knows he got lucky. He can retire without giving Pacquiao a fifth fight, but he will live knowing he got lucky. And the videos are there to remind him and everyone else. I guess Marquez and his fans can live with that. But what can you expect from fans that makes heroes of drug dealers, and steroid cheats like Angel Heredia. Is it a wonder why a lot of them hate the USA but trip over each other scrambling to get to America?
Mayweather’s true genius is his ability to cherry pick. He will take that cherry pick and promote him as a dangerous and viable opponent. It sold in the past, but not in his last fight against cherry Guerrero. It’s a different game now, cherry picking will come much harder to sell for Mayweather. Who will be the next cherry for Mayweather to pick. There is only two fights that won’t be cherry for Mayweather, Pacquiao at 147, and Canelo Alvarez at 154. Anything else will be a repeat in lower than expected PPV numbers of Mayweather’s last fight against Guerrero. Scratch Pacquiao off the list, he is with Bob Arum and HBO. I predict Mayweather will keep Canelo as a tease for Showtime while he picks more cherries until his contract expires.
I predict there will be no official release of the PPV numbers for the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Roberto “Ghost” Guerrero fight. Showtime sports executive Stephen Espinoza is in ventriloquist mode. So far, there is only official silence, I see Espinoza’s hand behind a dummy’s back. He keeps saying things like, “So when enough data had come in that we were able to speak meaningfully, which was probably Friday, that’s when we went ahead and confirmed that we will definitely be over a million buys.”
