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Philippines, 09 May 2024 |
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Three-Four Fighters Can Save Showtime?s Investment In Mayweather By Ralph Rimpell PhilBoxing.com Wed, 21 May 2014  Contact: RLuvsboxing@aol.com When the Showtime network lured Floyd Mayweather (46-0, 26 K0s) from HBO with a $200,000,000 six fight contract over the span of 30 months back in February 2013, it was an done to become the premier network in boxing and surpass their rival HBO. Mayweather is to fight solely on Pay Per View (PPV) and is expected to generate hundreds of millions for the network even surpassing the money being paid to him over the course of the contract. This can only be done with PPV sales of 1 million buys and more on a consistent basis for each fight. Mayweather has repeatedly said in the past he has earned the right to pick and choose who he fights. Mayweather may own Mansions, Airplanes, expensive cars, flashy jewelry, etc. but he doesn?t own Showtime. They have apparently tried it Mayweather?s way half way into the contract and it has apparently not worked the way Showtime had anticipated. Mayweather?s first fight for Showtime was against Robert Guerro on May 4, 2013. The official reported PPV buys for that fight were 870,000 buys which was a disappointment. According to my sources Showtime insisted on a better opponent for Mayweather?s next bout. Canelo Alvarez was Mayweather?s next opponent. All was forgiven when PPV sales beat all previous records. The Mayweather camp picked Marcos Maidana because of his upset victory over Adrien Broner and the fact that he is of Latin descent to appeal to the Latino Market during Cinqo De Mayo. That failed to yield the expected results because while it?s been over three weeks since Mayweather-Maidana the network thus far has not release any PPV results to the media. It?s rumored that Mayweather?s last fight did only 900,000 PPV buys which is a disappointment. This also puts Mayweather back at square one with 3 fights to go on his contract and a $100,000,000 remaining. How can Showtime protect or maximize their investment in Mayweather and yield the hundreds of Millions of Dollars they hope to generate when they gave Mayweather this unprecended contract? It will not be through Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Amir Kahn, or even Danny Garcia. No disrespect to any of these fighters, but the outcome in PPV buys will likely be the same as Guerro and Maidana. Showtime must demand Mayweather fight an established star. Only 3-4 fighters come to mind if paired with Mayweather will generate 1M PPV buys and over. The first fighter is: 
Pacquiao with wife Jinkee. Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KO?s): Pacquiao can help Floyd do the numbers he needs to justify why Showtime is paying him what they are. Floyd has said he won?t do business with Bob Arum, his former Promoter and Pacquiao?s current Promoter. Coincidentally, I have never recalled reading a valid reason why he won?t ?do business with Arum?. He hasn?t stated that Arum ripped him off of millions of dollars or owes him millions, like other fighters have said about other Promoters. He hasn?t said Arum slept with his fianc?e or girlfriend. He hasn?t said Arum disrespected him in the Media. He hasn?t stated Arum is a racist, or caught Arum on tape saying something a la Donald Sterling of the NBA Clippers, etc. The only thing I have read or heard was in reference to Arum not promoting his career the way he should have. That appears to qualify as to why Mayweather won?t ever to business with him. If that was the case he remedied that by going to other Promoters. If Showtime tells him to do business with Bob Arum or they will terminate his contract because they don?t approve of an opponent, Mayweather and Arum will shake hands publicly tomorrow the same way President Reagan and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev did to end the cold war. 
Cotto and Martinez. Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 K0s)-Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28KOs) - The winner of Cotto-Martinez fight on June 7, 2014 at MSG. Mayweather-Cotto had 1.5M buys. If Cotto could defeat Sergio Martinez, the lineal middleweight champion of the world, he makes a case for why he should be given a rematch with Mayweather. If Martinez defeats Cotto, his stock continues to rise. Martinez is a natural junior middleweight who would fight Mayeather at 154lbs and still defend his WBC middleweight belt giving Mayweather a chance to win a title in a 6th weight division. No one can correctly say Martinez is too big for Mayweather because Mayweather fought both De la Hoya and Cotto at 154lbs. Cotto is rumored to walk around, when not in training, as high as 180lbs, whereas Martinez walk around around 165lbs. Martinez only did 475,000 buys against Chavez, Jr. Martinez-Mayweather would do over 1M PPV buys. 
Golovkin. Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 K0s) - A Golovkin-Mayweather fight would sell like hot cakes! The closest Golovkin has come to calling out Mayweather is to say he will fight anyone between 154lbs and 168lbs. Mayweather Sr. has a stated his son should not fight Golovkin. Again no fair argument can be made that this fighter is too big for Mayweather because Mayweather has won titles in the 154lb division. Any bogus negotiation request from the Mayweather camp such as a fight between Golovkin or Martinez would have to be at some catchweight below 154lbs would only be a sign of cowardice or to gain an unfair advantage. The honeymoon period between Mayweather and Showtime may soon be over. If one examine the PPV results of the last 10 years, some fights have sold more than Mayweather-Maidana and the main event fighter got paid got 80% less than what Mayweather got paid his last fight. Think about that. Does it make financial sense to guarantee over $40,000,000.00 and the fighter can?t even crack 1M PPV buys in each fight of a $200,000,000 contract? The Fighters or fights where it made sense for a fighter to receive a $30,000,000-40,000,000 purse where mega fights such as Tyson-Sphinx, Tyson Holyfield, and Lewis-Tyson. Did Mayweather-Guerro or Mayweather-Maidana qualify as superfights? Would Mayweather-Thurman, Porter, Kahn, or Garcia also qualify as a superfight? Hopefully the public won?t purchase these fights and the Mayweather camp will choose a fight that?s worth buying such as Pacquiao, Golovkin, Cotto or Martinez. Boxing Notes: HBO?s Max Kellerman presents arguably his best ?Face Off? between Cotto-Martinez. It seems there is genuine bad blood between those two fighters. Can?t wait to see the fight! Keep up the good work Max???Too bad Andre Ward is on shelf with legal problems it would be a hell of a match between he and Golovkin now that Chavez Jr. and his people did the smart thing and negotiated their way out of that fight. Golovkin is looking for someone to fight on July 26, 2014 and I doubt it will be Mayweather??? Deontay Wilder is the WBC Heavyweight ranked #1 contender next in line to fight Bermane Stiverne, the newly crowned first ever recognized Haitian World Heavyweight champion. Deontay Wilder should not count his chicks before they hatch. Case in point, ask Promoter Dan Goosen of Goosen-Tutor and now Heavyweight contender turned journeyman Chris Arreola why he shouldn?t do that. Stiverne is no chump. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.  |
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