Despite massive publicity and sustained efforts in promoting the Mayweather-Berto showdown on Sept. 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Nevada, it appears that not many boxing fans want to see Mayweather’s farewell fight.
With barely four days before the fight, there is no indication the 16,000 sitting capacity of MGM Grand Garden Arena will be filled on fight night. “There are seats in all parts with less than a week to go for what Floyd Mayweather is selling as his last fight ever,” Daily Mail writes. Seemingly, Mayweather doesn’t really care at this time if there will only be a handful of fans who will watch him do his farewell fight. It is obvious that he only wants to conclude his contractual obligation with CBS/Showtime which requires him to do a $200 million six-fight pay-per-view deal with the network. Aside from tying the legendary Rocky Marciano’s career record, Mayweather wants to get his freedom back after having serve Showtime for the last three years. His own Mayweather Promotions is ready to give him the freedom to navigate his career path. It seems that no one believes Mayweather’s career is over and after his last fight on Showtime Saturday night, he will once again enjoy an unrestricted career track that would allow him to continue to shine in the spotlight which is what he really enjoys. Mayweather is good at promoting fights and if he really wants to sell the Berto fight, he could do so with precision as he did with his previous fights following his break up with Bob Arum, his former promoter. The unbeaten American may have put the death knell to the Berto fight when he said that he doesn’t care if no one shows up on Saturday night to watch what he calls his retirement fight. “Nobody?s forced to watch. Watch if you want to watch. If you don?t want to watch, don?t watch. Write about it if you want to write about it. If you don?t want to write about it, don?t. I?m not saying if you write good or bad, just continue to write. Keeps me relevant,? Mayweather said. Noticeably this statement may have turned off the fans who are still trying to figure out if the fight is worth watching after it was tagged a clear mismatch by the fans. The statement does not carry the usual message of appeal to consumers to support a certain event or show. If Mayweather doesn’t show interest in seeing the fans buying tickets for the fight, it could mean that the fight won’t be entertaining and therefore not worth watching.
