In movies, when the bad guy gets his justified comeuppance, people applaud and the film finishes with all being right in the world. No more bad guy means no more trouble, only blue skies ahead.
In the world of big-time professional boxing, however, the absence of the bad guy just may be the worst thing that could ever happen.
We all know that Mayweather made a ridiculous amount of money?mostly because Mayweather, himself, couldn?t stop himself from reminding us?but the undefeated five-division world champ also generated a lot of money for the boxing business, for other fighters, and for all of the ancillary businesses that benefit from being associated with the sport. With Mayweather retired and, apparently, gone for good, the baby birds in the nest may have lost momma bird. And, worst of all, there?s really nobody out there likely to step up and stop this sudden absence of flowing revenue.
Manny Pacquiao is the closest thing to Mayweather in terms of money generation and he definitely has the star power to temporary prop up the business. But Manny won?t be back until spring of next year and, if reports are to be believed, that may be his last fight.
Gennady Golovkin was highly touted as the next face of boxing and received plenty of media attention, but his first ever pay-per-view effort this past Saturday was a complete flop, generating anywhere from 97,000 to just under 150,000 buys, depending on which report you believe.
Miguel Cotto and Saul Alvarez are bona fide draws and high-end stars, they will meet on November 21 and the winner may have a chance at moving on to that next level Mayweather-like stardom. There?s no guarantee, though.
Nobody else in boxing seems even remotely fit to become the business? next big earner.
So, that takes us back to Mayweather, who probably generated as many ?hate buys? from fans wanting to see him bludgeoned as buys from true blue fans. Mayweather proved that boxing, alone, can?t make the needle move very much. There has to be some sizzle to the steak. Some degree of showmanship to appeal to the casual fans so necessary for a pay-per-view?s success.
Nobody else in the boxing business seems to get that.
You can take your Golovkins, your Terence Crawfords, your Chocolatitios, your Sergey Kovalevs?but if there?s no salesmanship, there are no buys. Like a top of the line sports car never displayed in the showroom, most people won?t ever even see what it is they?re being expected to buy.
Face it, boxing needs Mayweather way more than many would care to admit.
