AS fight night draws near Las Vegas is under siege.
You can’t go anywhere without seeing fans wearing The Money Team snap-back hats, ‘The One’ T-shirts or being asked what will happen on Saturday night.
It’s big.
And there’s still time for it to get even bigger.
The main eventers, Floyd Mayweather and Saul Alvarez, came face-to-face for the last time before Friday’s weigh-in today.
“Canelo-mania,” as Richard Schaefer calls it, is colliding with “Money-mania” and making a lot of people a lot of money.
For starters, Floyd’s guarantee is $41.5 million. That will rise when the final incomes are totaled and Alvarez’s surefire $5million will be elevated to around $10-12million.
The tickets were sold out in an hour. Around $20million of them.
“We knew we had something special then,” said Schaefer.
He could also see that when New York City came to a standstill for the first press conference on a 10-city tour that kicked off back on June 24.
Records are tumbling as I type, with closed circuit and merchandise incomes hitting all-time highs.
More than 162 countries will screen The One.
In 2009, Mayweather-Marquez was shown in 241 movie theatres in the US. This is in around 550 nationwide as the record-breaking activity continues.
“It’s off the charts,” Schaefer insisted. “We have nothing to compare it to. We know we have something special. This is a proud day for boxing.”
In some areas, it is tracking more then four or five times above where Mayweather’s big bout with Miguel Cotto last year.
They might sound like soundbytes but business is booming.
Showtime’s head of sports Stephen Espinoza said the network has three times in the last 12 months set records in boxing, before this, “The biggest and best event in recent memory.”
And even if it does not meet the 2.4-2.5 million homes Mayweather’s 2007 clash with Oscar De La Hoya did in 2007, because of pricing it only needs to sell around 1.9 million to make more money than that showpiece event of six years ago.
With a population of 112million, it is thought around 70-80million will see the fight in Mexico as they hope the man Schaefer calls “The Mexican James Dean” can upset the odds, that favour Floyd.
It is a clash of styles and personalities.
The opposing mantras of ‘Hard Work and Dedication vs Yes We Can’ tell their own stories.
Chepo Reynoso, who trains Alvarez with his son Eddie, fired off the initial call to arms in the press conference: “There’s been much talk about this fight but the time for talking is over and on Saturday night he will make history and leave with the victory,” he said.
Alvarez, looking well, simply thanked everyone for the support and said he will leave victorious.
He appeared comfortable and assured in the spotlight. There was no ‘happy-to-be-here’ expressions that you see with some Floyd opponents.
“Many can fight but few can inspire,” said Schaefer, of the red-headed Mexican. “He leads by example.”
Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, introduced his flagship star, reeling off the cliches we’ve become well-accustomed to hearing.
“He’s the face of boxing, the highest paid athlete in sports, he’s accomplished everything, broken all records, eight world titles, five weight classes…”
Mayweather took to the dais, not long before happily going nose-to-nose with his opponent for the obligatory press photos, and said: “We’ve had a beautiful training camp. The young champions who helped me get ready, I appreciate you. He [Alvarez] hasn’t faced 42 Floyd Mayweathers because he’d been 0-42 if he did. He knows he’s facing Floyd Mayweather, I’m just facing another opponent.”
Floyd puts his achievements down to “Hard work, dedication, belief and a good team.”
The fight has reached out into the mainstream and corporate America.
The drink, Corona, the chief sponsors for the event, have recently renewed a long-term agreement with Golden Boy Promotions.
“Watch out,” said Schaefer. “There’s a fight coming your way. It’s a big fight.”
It is The One everybody here is talking about.
I HAD lunch with Amir Rashid yesterday. Amir is a top man, he does Amir Khan’s PR work and is here working for BoxNation. We talked about Khan, David Price and much more. It looks like Khan’s December fight will be in New York, and the Bolton star lands in Las Vegas on Thursday, no doubt opening his pitch for a Mayweather fight next year.
IN the evening, I met up with The Guardian’s Kevin Mitchell, fresh from covering an incredible US Open in New York.
We reminisced about Dean Powell, whom I’m trying to get a 10-bell tribute to on Saturday night during the big show, and had a good couple of hours chatting about boxing. The author of Jacobs Beach and owner of some fabulous tales. It would be great to see Mitchell’s book immortalised on the silver screen.
On the subject of Dean, it’s fair to say the British contingent of press have been reeling from the news.
