Peter McNeeley and Canelo Alvarez should get together in the ring and make millions. Sure, it might be a little strange since McNeeley is 46 and Alvarez is 24, but being bizarre never kept anything away from boxing.
After all, they were in two of the top-grossing fights in history, and after Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao finally meet Saturday for record-shattering riches the sport is going to need someone to fill the void.
McNeeley and Alvarez were in fights that brought in a combined $246 million in pay-per-view grosses. Perhaps that?s a pittance compared to what Mayweather-Pacquiao could draw, but it still is a little better than the opening-weekend projections for ?Avengers: Age of Ultron.?
So why not make the match?
It?s simple: Gross does not equal great.
?I?ve broken records before,? Mayweather said at his grand arrival in Las Vegas on Tuesday. ?Are we going to do record-breaking numbers again? Absolutely.?
Indeed, Saturday?s Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, which will command just shy of $100 for the HD broadcast, is expected to demolish all records.
But even the master of hyperbole, promoter Bob Arum, is reluctant to anoint it as an all-time great fight.
?This is the biggest fight of this century,? Arum said recently. ?But when you look back at some of the truly great fights, it?s hard to compare.
?Just because more people will see this than any other fight doesn?t make it the best.?
McNeeley was the foil in Mike Tyson?s post-prison return to the ring and didn?t make it out of the first round. But the fight had more than 1.5 million PPV buys with a gross of $96 million.
Alvarez certainly is better known to fight fans, especially those who still believe he can regain his status as Mexico?s next great hope, and he lost to Mayweather in a majority decision in 2013. It was a horribly scored decision in a fight Mayweather dominated, but a decision nonetheless.
But Alvarez is not yet a superstar, even if he and Mayweather set the record for PPV gross at $150 million with 2.2 million buys (second only to the 2.4 million for Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya in 2007).
As long as a fight includes at least one of boxing?s few stars, though, its chances of PPV success are quite high. The 10 fights with the highest PPV grosses all involved one or more of the following: Mayweather, Pacquiao, Tyson, De La Hoya and Evander Holyfield.
Saturday?s combination of the two most popular fighters of their generation is an easy sell to the public, even if most ring observers think Mayweather at 38 and Pacquiao at 36 are past their primes.
And a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight in, say, 2010 likely would?ve been a serious contender to move into the ranks of the greatest, not just the richest.
Still, it?s the soonest egos could be set aside to make it happen, and the unmatched excitement for the fight shows fans will take whatever they can get.
?I?ve broken records before,? Mayweather said at his grand arrival in Las Vegas on Tuesday. ?Are we going to do record-breaking numbers again? Absolutely.?
Indeed, Saturday?s Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, which will command just shy of $100 for the HD broadcast, is expected to demolish all records.
But even the master of hyperbole, promoter Bob Arum, is reluctant to anoint it as an all-time great fight.
?This is the biggest fight of this century,? Arum said recently. ?But when you look back at some of the truly great fights, it?s hard to compare.
?Just because more people will see this than any other fight doesn?t make it the best.?
McNeeley was the foil in Mike Tyson?s post-prison return to the ring and didn?t make it out of the first round. But the fight had more than 1.5 million PPV buys with a gross of $96 million.
Alvarez certainly is better known to fight fans, especially those who still believe he can regain his status as Mexico?s next great hope, and he lost to Mayweather in a majority decision in 2013. It was a horribly scored decision in a fight Mayweather dominated, but a decision nonetheless.
But Alvarez is not yet a superstar, even if he and Mayweather set the record for PPV gross at $150 million with 2.2 million buys (second only to the 2.4 million for Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya in 2007).
As long as a fight includes at least one of boxing?s few stars, though, its chances of PPV success are quite high. The 10 fights with the highest PPV grosses all involved one or more of the following: Mayweather, Pacquiao, Tyson, De La Hoya and Evander Holyfield.
Saturday?s combination of the two most popular fighters of their generation is an easy sell to the public, even if most ring observers think Mayweather at 38 and Pacquiao at 36 are past their primes.
And a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight in, say, 2010 likely would?ve been a serious contender to move into the ranks of the greatest, not just the richest.
Still, it?s the soonest egos could be set aside to make it happen, and the unmatched excitement for the fight shows fans will take whatever they can get.
