Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs this past Saturday was not fixed in the traditional boxing sense where a winner is pre-determined and someone takes a dive or rolls over for the other. And, no, the judges weren?t ?paid off? to favor Canelo.
But, it would?ve taken a Herculean effort from IBF middleweight titlist Jacobs to walk into T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and walk out with a win and Canelo?s WBA and WBC belts. Even though this writer offered that an upset was not an impossibility?if Jacobs were to decisively win rounds and control the fight?the reality was that the effort to dominate a legitimately world class fighter like Alvarez with a game board tilted to such a degree would?ve required the efforts of a team closer to The Avengers than Team Jacobs.
In the case of Canelo-Jacobs, the ?fix? involved streaming service DAZN valuing their most valued property, Canelo Alvarez, and how clearly they were leaning on creating a super-hero mythos around the Mexican star.
As things played out, last Saturday?s DAZN telecast was all about Alvarez and not at all about a prizefight and nobody, at any level of the event?s production, cared to hide that fact one single bit.
The announce team of Brian Kenny and Sergio Mora was especially awful in the way they championed a Canelo whitewash blowout narrative that clearly didn?t represent the realities of what was happening in the ring. Kenny?s hyper-cheerleading, which eventually beat down Mora?s attempts to actually call a fight, made Jim Lampley?s pro-HBO house fighter bias seem fair and even-handed.
When promoter Oscar De la Hoya, whose job is to hype Canelo, comes on the air and has a closer card than the announcers calling the fight, man, that says everything right there.
Jacobs walked right into the raging pro-Canelo waters and, ultimately, was swept away by the current. From dehydration clauses to the ?what?s next for Canelo? narrative already being set, a lot of obstacles were put before the ?Miracle Man? and, for a large portion of the contest, he fought like he was trying more to lose with dignity.
And, conversely, Canelo fought like someone who had already won and was merely trying to make sure he got across the finish line safely.
Yeah, there were some other legitimate possible reasons behind DAZN?s first ?PPV-level? fight being such a snoozer?Canelo?s speed might?ve surprised and handcuffed Jacobs for a good portion of the fight and Jacobs? size/athleticism could?ve forced Canelo to be more cautious than he would?ve liked. But, still, neither did all that much to fight where this matchup was headed.
The end result was a flat affair that produced zero drama and showed little of the magic both fighters genuinely do possess. A close fight without the intrigue of a close fight, Canelo-Jacobs seemed more like an exercise in man-made destiny playing itself out.
The judges, who didn?t hear the biased announcing or see the infomercial-style broadcast, scored the fight reasonably with scores of 115-113, 115-113, and 116-112. DAZN ringside unofficial scorer Chris Mannix also had the fight scored 116-112 for Alvarez despite being shot down by Kenny with insinuations that his multi-tasking during the fight was distracting him from truly seeing the Mexican?s dominance.
When DAZN signed Alvarez to a five-year, $365 million deal last fall, it was clear that the streaming service would be leaning heavily on Alvarez and his star power to help build the company. But seven months into the deal, after a DAZN debut with no-hoper Rocky Fielding that reportedly failed to bring in a bundle of subscribers and a dearth of other big subscriber-appealing fights on their schedule thus far, the urgency to build around Canelo?s star power is greater than ever?and it shows. Who could blame the streaming service for going ?all in? on the Canelo-build when his salary, alone, is reportedly greater than the total revenue currently brought in by subscriber dollars?
DAZN needs Canelo to be the next crossover superstar in boxing and to pull them out into the mainstream with him. Unfortunately, turning every telecast into a Canelo hype orgy with a pre-destined Canelo win just may turn more people off than bring people in.
