On May 8, 1999, Erik Morales, who was then considered to be just another belt holder, defended his WBC super bantamweight crown against Juan Carlos Ramirez.
It would be ‘El Terrible’s first performance on a pay-per-view telecast as the marquee attraction. ‘Ranchero’ was a late replacement for the much more high profile Wayne McCullough, who had to pull out of that date because of a training camp injury.
But despite the late change, there were no second thoughts about going through with this pay-per-view broadcast that took place at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas.
“We knew we were going to take it in the keister,” said Bob Arum, whose company, Top Rank, has promoted the native of Tijuana throughout his career. “There was no illusion we were going to make money and darn right we didn’t make any money – we lost money. But that’s what you do building a franchise, a fighter. We were playing for bigger stakes.”
The numbers were minuscule to say the least.
“If we did 50,000(buys), it would be a lot. We’re probably still counting and still not anywhere near 50,000.”
But from those humble beginnings, a pay-per-view franchise was born.
Fast forward to 2005, and in his last three bouts (versus Carlos Hernandez, Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao) Morales has done around 800,000 buys, generating around $35 million in revenue.
Erik Morales is now a pay-per-view heavyweight.
“Morales has been fighting on HBO and HBO Pay-Per-View for a number of years and his promoter, Top Rank, has spent a lot of time and effort doing publicity in the Hispanic marketplace,” says Mark Taffet of HBO Pay-Per-View. “Erik also, as a fighter, has the personality of the great Mexican fighters and his credentials in the ring over the years have been outstanding as he’s won championship after championship in different weight classes.”
Combine a loyal fan-base with an adroit promotional push, all backed up by a blood-and-guts boxer, and you have a box-office sensation.
“His pay-per-view numbers have improved steadily over the years,” says Taffet. “Moving from pay-per-view niche status, to what now is pay-per-view franchise status.”
It’s clear, Morales is more than just a west-coast Mexican fighter, he is now a brand name boxer whose name carries weight from coast-to-coast. But it was a slow process that gained momentum over time. After his ninth-round stoppage of Ramirez, two months later he’d headline another small pay-per-view show in Tijuana, where he’d stop Reynante Jamili in six rounds.
From there he would make appearances on HBO against the likes of McCullough (in October of 1999), his first encounter against Marco Antonio Barrera (in February of 2000), Kevin Kelley (September 2000), and Guty Espadas( February 2001), and fight on pay-per-view undercards featuring Oscar De La Hoya and Roy Jones.
It was not until his rematch with Barrera in June of 2002 that he would headline a first-tier pay-per-view show, y’know, the kind where HBO trots out their announcing team, anchored by Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and Harold Lederman.
That show, which took place just two weeks after the blockbuster event featuring Lennox Lewis’s thrashing of Mike Tyson – which did a staggering two million buys – did over 300,000 subscriptions, which are hefty numbers for featherweights, neither of whom speak English as their first language.
Morales and Barrera had broken new ground as arch-rivals. A year earlier, Barrera had broken the 300,000 threshold in his bout against Naseem Hamed. These little guys were now doing big numbers.
“The first thing you have to have in order to make a pay-per-view star is you’ve got to have a fan-base,” Arum says of the decision to take Morales on pay-per-view back in 1999. “And we saw that he was extremely popular in Tijuana and also in San Diego because it’s a similar kind of market. So we knew that we had at that particular point somebody – if he held up in the ring – we believed was a real talent and very pleasing the way he fought and who could be a pay-per-view star.”
Arum says the key is to build early. “Absolutely, absolutely. The idea is to build the franchise as soon as possible, to know where you’re going with the franchise.”
But the first step in building a pay-per-view attraction is often the most difficult, which is taking the risk of losing money early on. It seems in today?s market that most promoters have fallen into the trap of staying within the safe confines of the licensing fees provided by the networks to put their fighters on their airwaves.
“That is correct,” agreed Arum. “The new promoters feel that to be a promoter is to have one great talent – and that is to kiss ass, whether it be HBO, Showtime and now ESPN – that is the way to be a promoter. You do it with the money being supplied by other people, these networks.
“Now, if you can do it that way, certainly there’s less sleepless nights.”
But Arum admits that his often times irascible and strong-willed manner make it a necessity to not be beholden to the networks.
“We have found, maybe it’s because of my personality, that I can’t do it that way,” he says. “Because I’ve got a strong personality and these guys, they’re not bad guys, but they don’t necessarily see things the same way I do. And pretty much if I can’t have my way, I get very, very annoyed. And if they’re paying the money, then there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Taffet says regardless of what philosophical and personality clashes that may occur, “My experience with Top Rank over the years has been that they’ve always taken a long term view of their fighters and they plan – not just for one fight – many fights and even years at a time. And Erik Morales has been the beneficiary of that, to the point now where he’s had three pay-per-view fights in which he’s participated that have generated 300,000 buys.
“Only he and Barrera today, in these lighter weight classes, have generated that kind of activity.”
What’s interesting is that Morales’ stature has grown with just a minimal amount of HBO dates. Since September 1997, when he first headlined on the network by stopping Daniel Zaragoza for his first world title, he’s had just seven bouts on HBO, and only two since 2001 (against Guty Espadas in 2001 and Jesus Chavez last year). In the past few years, Top Rank has chafed at what they feel is unfair treatment of their fighter by the network.
“The fact is, Erik was never on their list of ‘have to do’ fighters because they were in love with Hamed, then they were in love with Barrera and so we had to do what we did and the only reason that I got him on HBO was because I was willing to license them my footage for ‘Legendary Nights’.
“Otherwise, he wouldn’t be on HBO.”
For the record, though, after their first battle in 2000, a defiant Barrera would tell Merchant in the post-fight interview how satisfying it was for him to beat up on ‘HBO’s fighter’, which is a common theme in the sport. One fighter seeing his rival on the network will invariably accuse the network of favoritism (Which seems only valid when Al Haymon is involved).
“We never would have wholly relied on HBO, just the way we didn’t do with Oscar (De La Hoya),” Arum points out. But he does admit, “Not being on HBO impeded our success because it didn’t give him the full exposure that we would’ve liked him to have to be a breakout star.”
But even after his first major pay-per-view outing against Barrera in 2002, he would still perform on a variety of different platforms, from non-televised fights in Mexico against Eddie Croft, co-headlining a show with Oscar De La Hoya on Cinco De Mayo weekend of 2003 (where he stopped Fernando Velardez in five and then posed over him), a smaller pay-per-view show where he faced Espadas again, and an HBO fight against Chavez, where he captured the WBC 130-pound title in February of 2004.
But according to Arum, it was Morales’ fight against Paulie Ayala in November of 2002 that showed that he had turned the corner as an attraction.
“When we crashed 100,000 with a guy who wasn’t really considered to be a superstar, from then on, it hasn’t been looking back,” he says.
Morales has made 13 appearances on pay-per-view broadcasts, eight as the featured performer. And his last three bouts have steadily increased in numbers from Carlos Hernandez (160,000 buys), to Barrera III (320,000) to Pacquiao (350,000).
Below the heavyweight division, outside of De La Hoya, nobody is as successful in this realm as ‘El Terrible’.
None of this surprises the veteran promoter.
“No, because people, particularly our core audience, Hispanics, want to see guys who come to fight; guys who will go out on their shield, so to speak. And Erik is that kind of fighter and he has an enormous appeal for that reason with the Hispanics.”
Mirroring this growth has been coverage from the media. In the late 90’s, as Morales was being developed, press row was made up strictly of Latin and west coast media outlets. Now, for his bigger fights, media from all around the world make the trek to cover his bouts.
Lee Samuels, publicist for Top Rank, says that the number of credentials given out for Morales bouts has increased from around 100 per fight in 2000, to around 350 to 400. “It’s increased every show, the number of press.”
So what’s next?
“I’d like for that Pacquiao situation to get itself resolved,” says Arum, alluding to Pacquiao’s promotional situation. “We can plan our next big pay-per-view fight for December with Pacquiao. In the meanwhile, we’re penciled in for a September 10th date on HBO.”
POST ZARAGOZA
Here’s a breakdown of Morales’ career since his bout against Zaragoza in 1997:
– 24 bouts
– 7 HBO bouts: Zaragoza, Junior Jones, McCullough, Barrera I, Kelley, Espadas I and Chavez
– 8 pay-per-view bouts as the featured performer: Ramirez, Jamili, Barrera I, Ayala, Espadas II, Hernandez, Barrera III and Pacquiao
– 5 as a co-headliner or undercard performer: Jose Luis Bueno (Genaro Hernandez-Carlos Gerena), Angel Chacon (De La Hoya-Ike Quartey), Mike Juarez (Shane Mosley-De La Hoya I), In Jin Chi( Roy Jones-Julio Gonzalez), Velardez (De La Hoya-Yory Boy Campas)
– 3 non-televised fights: Remigio Molina (TKO6), Rodney Jones (KO1) and Eddie Croft (TKO3)
– 1 ESPN appearance: John Lowey (TKO7).
