One of the most tedious rites of passage for fans of professional boxing is having to sit through a procession of preliminary bouts before getting to the fight you really want to see.
But rarely does one of those prelims come disguised as a main event — and with a hefty price tag attached to it.
That is what you are getting when Canelo Alvarez — by consensus, one of the top five performers in the sport at any weight class — fights Amir Khan, a speedy welterweight of suspect chin, on Saturday night at the brand-new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The bout is nominally for Alvarez’s middleweight title, although it is being fought at a catchweight of 155 pounds, mostly to accommodate Khan, who has fought the majority of his fights as a junior welterweight and has never weighed more than 147.
For the privilege of watching this equivalent of lion versus lamb, you are being asked to part with a minimum of $60 to watch on pay-per-view, or $70 if you want to see it clearly — that is, in high-definition.
No doubt, there will be plenty of takers, because Alvarez is the latest in a long and proud line of Mexican-born prizefighters, and Hispanic boxing fans are among the most loyal in any sport.
But the truth is, Alvarez-Khan is a mere preliminary to the fight most boxing fans would like to see: Alvarez and unified middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin, who like Alvarez is so big in his particular realm that he need only go by his initials, GGG.
Alvarez-Golovkin is the fight that really should be taking place on Saturday, except for the fact that Alvarez and his promoter, Golden Boy, have twice asked for dispensation from the WBC to sidestep Golovkin, the mandatory challenger for 18 months now, in favor of an easier opponent.
In November, Alvarez was given an aging Miguel Cotto, and on Saturday, he will be served Khan, an Englishman in possession of an exceptionally fast pair of hands and an alarmingly soft chin. Khan was knocked out by Danny Garcia, a good-punching welterweight, in 2012, and by Breidis Prescott, a lightweight, in 2008. It is difficult to see how Khan can avoid the same fate at the hands of Alvarez.
Now there is no reason to begrudge athletes from making paydays, especially boxers, who unlike any other athletes, run the risk of serious injury or even death every time they go to work.
This fight will be a windfall for both fighters, with both Alvarez and Khan expected to take home more than eight figures once the PPV revenue is accounted for. But the fight is unlikely to be more than just another money grab in a sport that makes its public beg and crawl for an occasional morsel.
That should not be the case with Alvarez-Golovkin. Both are big, strong and skilled. Each will be a handful for the other. And the time for them to meet is as soon as possible.
And if anyone should be aware of that, it is Oscar De La Hoya, the proprietor of Golden Boy. After all, it was De La Hoya’s beating at the hands of Manny Pacquiao in 2008 that lit the fires for Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather.
That one only took seven more years to get made, by which point the prices had risen in inverse proportion to the abilities of the fighters.
It is incredible that anyone who spent $100 for that sleepwalk last May would ever plunge on a PPV fight again In fact, the fallout was seen two weeks ago, when reportedly fewer than 400,000 paid for the telecast of Pacquiao’s third — and purportedly farewell — fight against Timothy Bradley Jr.
Alvarez-Khan is likely to do better, especially considering Alvarez did 900,000 buys against Cotto, and his fan base seems willing to pay to watch him lace up his boxing shoes.
But there are risks to avoiding fights — yes, I know I’m giving Khan no chance, but random events can and do take place in boxing rings — and even though Alvarez won’t turn 26 until July, the clock is always ticking on a fighter’s career.
Alvarez was surely rushed into his 2013 fight with Mayweather, when he was barely 23, and gave a creditable account of himself (although judge C.J. Ross, who scored the fight a draw, thankfully no longer judges fights). Khan will be Alvarez’s fifth fight since Mayweather delivered the only loss on his record — he fought to a draw in his fifth pro fight 10 years ago — and there really is no more learning for him to do and no more stiffs for him to steamroll.
Right now, Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, is clearing a date — Sept. 17 — at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for a proposed Alvarez-Golovkin fight, which Jones thinks could draw as many as 60,000 people.
Jones, no boxing savant but a guy who knows how to make money in professional sports, senses what a lot of people in boxing believe — that Alvarez-Golovkin could go down as one of the great middleweight fights — and great boxing rivalries, perhaps even a trilogy to rival that of Pacquiao-Erik Morales, Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez or even Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier.
Last month, Golovkin killed a few minutes by knocking out Dominic Wade in a preliminary of his own, forced by Alvarez’s second deferment of his WBC mandatory. It is well-known in boxing circles that GGG and his promoter, Tom Loeffler, would sign for a fight against Alvarez in less time than it took Mike Tyson to knock out Marvis Frazier.
Hopefully, both parties signing the contract is what will happen next.
For Alvarez, the preliminaries are just about over. It’s time to step up to the main event.
