Showtime took a bath on this one, even though it was allegedly Mayweather?s final fight and therefore meaningful?
The bean counters are still tabulating the results, but it appears that the pay-per-view fight between Floyd Mayweather and Andre Berto was the flop everyone expected.
According to industry sources, who choose to remain nameless, no more than 550,000 paid to watch Mayweather fight Berto, and the number may be as low as 400,000.
If those numbers are correct, Showtime took a bath on this one, even though it was allegedly Mayweather?s final fight and therefore meaningful.
The reasons for the fight?s failure are many, but looking for a single reason is one of the games people play.
Disgust at the so-called ?Fight of the Century? between Mayweather and Pacquiao looms large when it comes to the blame game. But whatever that fight was, and all that it was not, had more to do with Pacquiao and his torn rotator cuff, which Manny and his promoter kept to themselves, than with Mayweather?s safety-first style.
That Floyd made $250 million for fighting a one-armed man didn?t help a bit.
Some blame Berto, who is not now nor has never been a marquee fighter. He was offered $4 million to fight Mayweather and he sensibly took the money and ran, even though he blamed Mayweather for running, as did Pacquiao, which is lame bordering on preposterous.
And some are blaming Al Haymon. He had a hand in the Mayweather-Pacquiao fiasco, as well as May-Berto. But he is also providing fights for free on regular TV on a regular, which makes pay-per-view more impertinent than ever.
With all the influence Haymon has in boxing, he needs to be blamed for something, and one doesn?t need to be an HBO consultant to point a crooked finger and cry j?accuse, whether it?s justified or not, whether it?s grandstanding or not, whether it?s interesting or not.
When all is said and done, the fans decided, for whatever reason, that they?ve had enough of Mayweather for now. But memories are short. Maybe down the road, once the dust settles, they will feel otherwise.
But bottom line, it appears that Floyd Mayweather, the master of timing, and so much else, timed his exit to perfection.
