Last month at the Star Plaza at LA Live, where a public press conference was held to officially announce the September 17th pay-per-view bout between WBC welterweight titlist Victor Ortiz and Floyd Mayweather, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer promised me that they would be featuring the greatest undercard of all-time. For the record, the ?Illmatic? of all pay-per-view undercards is ?Revenge the Rematches? that took place in 1994, featuring return bouts like Julio Cesar Chavez-Frankie Randall and Gerald McClellan-Julian Jackson. That card will be the one all others are measured against now and forever.
Well, ?Star Power? has a bill that includes Saul Alvarez facing Alfonso Gomez, Jessie Vargas taking on Josesito Lopez and Erik Morales battling the hard-hitting Lucas Matthysse. Y? know what? From top to bottom, this is a pretty damn good card, any way you slice it. Every single fight on this undercard figures to be a fun, entertaining scrap.
No Butterbean or Mia St. John for your $54.95.
“It?s the biggest card we have ever promoted; frankly, it?s the biggest I can remember,” said Schaefer this past Wednesday at Olvera Street, where an open air press conference was held for this undercard. “Certainly it?s the biggest in the past ten, 12, 14 years or so. We wanted to give a great card and I?m happy to combine all these stars from Morales, ?Canelo?, to Mayweather-Ortiz, emerging stars like Vargas, on one card. It really is for the fight fans, sports fans, general public. If you ever want to watch one fight card, that?s the one.”
Here?s the thing; it?s a belief in the boxing industry that whatever headlines the marquee on a pay-per-view card is responsible for about 99 percent of the buys. Most successful shows are reliant on big names- like a Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao- to drive interest with the general public (who often doesn?t care what is on the screen for the first two hours of a pay-per-view show). They believe the hardcore loyalist will purchase the card, regardless, so with that, undercards have suffered in quality.
You would think, though, while the sport is in the spotlight just a few days out of the year, promotions would put their best feet forward on these occasions. Perhaps there needs to be more emphasis on offering lineups that aren?t just reliant on the main event to carry the day. To a certain degree, these fights shouldn?t just be the filler or something that you sludge through. At least one fight should be of- at the very least- ?Boxing After Dark?-quality and, above all, provide some real entertainment.
“I agree with you,” said Schaefer, whose card is a split-site affair from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and the Staples Center in Los Angeles. “I think Mayweather-Ortiz is certainly one of the best match-ups you can make. I know everyone is talking about Mayweather-Pacquiao but short of that, I think at this particular time, at this particular weight class, this is the single best match-up that can be made. I really don?t see any other combination whatsoever. It?s the biggest fight. It?s a dangerous fight for Floyd. So it?s certainly a pay-per-view which is going to be on its own, I would assume, in the 1.5 million-range or so. Mayweather against [Juan Manuel] Marquez did like a 1.35 million, so Mayweather is in that range. So here, you?re talking about a million-and-a-half homes. Now we really feel we have loaded this card with – since its Mexican Independence weekend- the best young Mexican star who commands huge audiences in Mexico and here as well. We went on sale with tickets at the Staples Center and on the first day, we sold like 3,000 tickets. That?s unbelievable. We put ?Canelo? on the card in what will be a very, very entertaining fight with Gomez, who is a character and a heckuva fighter.
