No non-boxing fan is clamoring for Canelo-Golovkin and none, unfortunately, are being sold on it. That?s not Mayweather?s or McGregor?s fault?
If the upcoming Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin pay-per-view fails to deliver in terms of buy rate, you can blame promoters Golden Boy and K2 for not doing enough to get this bout into the mainstream collective unconscious or you can blame the business, itself, for not being in a spot anymore to guarantee any sort of financial success. You?ll be able to point a finger at a lot of reasons for disappointing sales figures, but the August 26 Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor bout, taking place just three weeks before Canelo-GGG, won?t carry any share of the blame.
There?s been a lot of talk about how the boxing vs. UFC mega-event is going to mess with the salability of Alvarez-Golovkin. Golden Boy founder and president, Oscar De la Hoya even penned a cringe-worthy open letter to fans, imploring them to boycott Floyd-Conor in order to ?protect the sport of boxing? from a scourge so awful that ?our sport might never recover.?
Yes, the fear is real over at Golden Boy Promotions. The idea that a true ?mega-bout,? over two years in the making, will be upstaged by a lesser fight featuring two bigger stars is something boxing fans and media have obsessed over since before the Floyd-Conor bout was even officially signed. And, on the surface, it makes sense that the bigger mainstream-friendly fight will draw attention?and consumer dollars?away from the ?better? and better-regarded card. Expecting fans to dish out one hundred bucks for Mayweather-McGregor and then seventy for Alvarez-Golovkin three weeks later seems like an unrealistic expectation.
But this line of thought, while logical in the isolated circle of boxing fandom and media, isn?t necessarily reality in the real world.
Oscar will more likely be affected by his own inability to reach the mainstream with his promotional skills than by anything Floyd and Conor do. If Oscar can?t sell his fight beyond those boxing fans already won over by the sport and predisposed to consume, then there?s no chance of him generating the blockbuster numbers he surely envisioned when agreeing to let his company?s cash cow take on, perhaps, the biggest challenge of his career.
Despite all the guaranteed finger pointing and assignment of outside blame if the Golden Boy PPV doesn?t deliver a monster payout, the failure to sell will be the fault of the promotion?period. It shouldn?t matter what?s coming before or after when it comes to selling an event as big as this and, really, it?s not even clear that the two PPV shows will actually be competing for the same consumers? attention.
It?s a big question when trying to analyze how much impact one show will have on the other?will those buying the Mayweather-McGregor mega-spectacle be the same people buying Canelo-Golovkin?
Mayweather-McGregor will generate a lot of interest and a good portion of its sales from casual fans, UFC loyalists, and the mainstream-curious. Canelo-Golovkin, on the other hand, should do pretty well with the so-called ?hardcore? fans. Unfortunately for the sport, though, the hardcore fan support, alone, just isn?t enough anymore to turn a big ticket event into a super success, at least not a success anywhere near the Mayweather-Pacquiao level or even all that much beyond the million seller level.
It?s reasonable to assume, though, that both fights can be successful appealing to their own respective audiences and niche markets. Realistically, neither will likely lose money and all four main event fighters will probably earn more money for this night?s work than for any previous night?s work (well, whether that will be the case for Mayweather and Alvarez, however, is debatable).
But if everyone is being honest here, Canelo-Golovkin was never going to light up the mainstream. No matter how much boxing ?die-hards? clamored desperately for the fight and told themselves how gigantic this pairing would be, the reality was always that the bout would be limited in its ability to reach the much-needed casual fan and mainstream crossover. At best, it may stand a solid chance of being as profitable as this past May?s Canelo vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. card, which generated about a million PPV sales. Maybe it?ll be slightly more profitable, maybe slightly less?but that?s it.
No non-boxing fan is clamoring for Canelo-Golovkin and none, unfortunately, are being sold on it. That?s not Mayweather?s or McGregor?s fault.
