Twelve months ago, the thought of Floyd Mayweather battling on Showtime pay-per-view might have been nearly inconceivable. HBO Sports activities, the foremost boxing outlet within the United states for quite some time working, would usually property the most significant fights and largest fighters. Though Golden Boy experienced begun filtering increasing stars above to Showtime very last calendar year -- amid them Canelo Alvarez, Danny Garcia, and Amir Khan -- it seemed HBO would not lose its grip to the likes of Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, and another prospective long run superstar, Adrien Broner.
On February 19 of this year, the game changed. Floyd Mayweather signed a six-fight deal with Showtime and CBS Sports, leaving behind HBO and a stunned boxing industry that just didn't see the move coming. On March 18, HBO officially announced that they would no longer be doing business with Golden Boy Promotions or Al Haymon, meaning that the dividing lines were clearly drawn: Showtime, Golden Boy, Haymon, and Mayweather on one side against HBO, Top Rank, and the second-tier promoters on the other side. Source of Article : badlefthook.com
So far, the move has worked out impressively for Showtime, in no small part because Richard Schaefer and Golden Boy Promotions seem to have decided to really go for the jugular. Years of crowing about offering the best fights, while offering essentially industry standard semi-mismatches sold as competitive fare, turned into Schaefer and Co. actually starting to work vigorously toward putting together the very best matchups that were available to them. Showtime has without question had their best year in memory, and to date, they've put on the year's biggest fight, when Mayweather fought and easily defeated Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero on May 4.
While Mayweather-Guerrero numbers weren't quite what anyone would have hoped to see, it was still the biggest hit of 2013, in terms of pure numbers. But there is little question at this point -- it's August, and there's never been an official numbers release, which in boxing history means that someone wasn't happy with the number and wants it hidden -- that the show underperformed, too, at least as compared to expectations. Whether it was the dramatic shellshock that some said it must have been to the division's finances is another matter altogether. Now, it may not even matter.
Because whatever money may (or may not) have been lost on Mayweather-Guerrero is going to come back and then some on September 14, when Floyd Mayweather faces Canelo Alvarez at the MGM Grand, live on Showtime pay-per-view. This will blow away any other event in terms of business this year, and that goes for both boxing and mixed martial arts. The UFC simply doesn't have an "it" fight that can draw the numbers of something like Mayweather-Canelo, and that is meant less as a knock on UFC than it is to demonstrate just how compelling and how big a truly big-time boxing fight can still be.
I think there's no question that the UFC is a better-run organization (in that it is an organization, and is organized), and that their sport, while no longer growing by leaps and bounds as it did for a few years, is the closer to the mainstream of the two most months out of the year. But not when Floyd Mayweather fights. He's a domestic sports star on a level they just haven't seen in MMA at this point in time. That's credit to Mayweather.
On February 19 of this year, the game changed. Floyd Mayweather signed a six-fight deal with Showtime and CBS Sports, leaving behind HBO and a stunned boxing industry that just didn't see the move coming. On March 18, HBO officially announced that they would no longer be doing business with Golden Boy Promotions or Al Haymon, meaning that the dividing lines were clearly drawn: Showtime, Golden Boy, Haymon, and Mayweather on one side against HBO, Top Rank, and the second-tier promoters on the other side. Source of Article : badlefthook.com
So far, the move has worked out impressively for Showtime, in no small part because Richard Schaefer and Golden Boy Promotions seem to have decided to really go for the jugular. Years of crowing about offering the best fights, while offering essentially industry standard semi-mismatches sold as competitive fare, turned into Schaefer and Co. actually starting to work vigorously toward putting together the very best matchups that were available to them. Showtime has without question had their best year in memory, and to date, they've put on the year's biggest fight, when Mayweather fought and easily defeated Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero on May 4.
While Mayweather-Guerrero numbers weren't quite what anyone would have hoped to see, it was still the biggest hit of 2013, in terms of pure numbers. But there is little question at this point -- it's August, and there's never been an official numbers release, which in boxing history means that someone wasn't happy with the number and wants it hidden -- that the show underperformed, too, at least as compared to expectations. Whether it was the dramatic shellshock that some said it must have been to the division's finances is another matter altogether. Now, it may not even matter.
Because whatever money may (or may not) have been lost on Mayweather-Guerrero is going to come back and then some on September 14, when Floyd Mayweather faces Canelo Alvarez at the MGM Grand, live on Showtime pay-per-view. This will blow away any other event in terms of business this year, and that goes for both boxing and mixed martial arts. The UFC simply doesn't have an "it" fight that can draw the numbers of something like Mayweather-Canelo, and that is meant less as a knock on UFC than it is to demonstrate just how compelling and how big a truly big-time boxing fight can still be.
I think there's no question that the UFC is a better-run organization (in that it is an organization, and is organized), and that their sport, while no longer growing by leaps and bounds as it did for a few years, is the closer to the mainstream of the two most months out of the year. But not when Floyd Mayweather fights. He's a domestic sports star on a level they just haven't seen in MMA at this point in time. That's credit to Mayweather.
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