The self-imposed media gag order by promoters of the proposed Pacquiao-Mayweather match is taking its toll on the popularity of what appears to be next year’s biggest boxing event. Sportswriters and and bloggers are slowing down, relaxing and soon they may altogether stop hitting their keyboards for lack of news from the promoters of ‘PacWeather’ or the Pacquiao-Mayweather match.
Noticeably, there is a slowdown on the number of boxing news articles that are being published on print media and online. This is due to the fact that Bob Arum and Richard Schaefer have been on a self-imposed gag order not to disclosed any information while the fight deal is not made official. The gag order seems to have worked negatively in creating a sustained fight hype that is necessary to keep the media busy with news about the ‘PacWeather’ fight.
The news that were created by the Pacquiao-Cotto match are slowly being consumed as the fight hype starts to die down. The ‘PacWeather’ match is supposed to sustain boxing fans appetite for news about next year’s biggest boxing event that will feature today’s biggest names in boxing.
Bob Arum and Richard Schaefer, promoters of the ‘PacWeather’ match, must keep the sportswriters and bloggers informed in order to keep boxing fans on their toes between now and probably May or June of next year. We are talking here of about six months. If the popular promoters want to keep the ‘PacWeather’ match on print front pages and on bloggers websites, they must continue to disclose some information about the on-going negotiations that media men can write and talk about.
It would seem that even the senior Floyd ‘Loudmouth’ Mayweather is also on gag order as news from him are hard to come by. Pacquiao’s popular trainer Freddie Roach has not been active in sharing his thoughts on the upcoming fight.
To keep the momentum of the fight on its current level while the formal fight announcement is pending and until the promotional tour schedule is known, the promoters could tap the trainers and the handlers of both boxers to engage media people especially sportswriters and bloggers by sharing their insights on the boxers and the upcoming boxing event.
The promoters may find it difficult to keep boxing fans on their toes during the month of December as people will do a lot of shopping and traveling.
If a publicity lull is created during the Christmas season due to inadequate stream of information that sportswriters need for their news stories, it may be difficult for the promoters to get back to the level of popularity that the Pacquiao-Mayweather match has attained at this time.
