As the old stars fade and new stars are created, their ability to generate pay-per-view revenue becomes a touchstone of their viability?
On Saturday, October 17, at New York?s Madison Square Garden, in a fight televised live on HBO PPV, WBA, IBO, and interim WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs), the knockout artist from Los Angeles by way of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, fights a unification bout against IBF World middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs), from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Boxing is a star-based system and the star-making process regarding Golovkin has been going on for some time. Although he is 33 years old and has been fighting professionally since 2006, he has yet to be tested. But with Floyd Mayweather gone (if not forgotten) and Manny Pacquiao promising (or threatening) one last fight before he calls it a day, it?s time for Golovkin to step up and his fight with Lemieux, not a former or wannabe champion but a genuine titleholder, is his chance to punch his way into the hearts and minds of fight fans.
Unfortunately, with the fight on pay-per-view, many fight fans will not see the fight. At $49.95 the cost of watching the bout is not as prohibitive as some of the pay-per-view fights in the past. But those on a fixed income, as well as those who have grown accustomed to watching increasingly improving PBC fights for free on regular TV, may not be inclined to reach in their pockets in order to watch a fight which may in fact be pay-per-view worthy.
Like it or not, the pay-per-view model is here to stay. It has hurt boxing at the same time as it has helped HBO and Showtime. Considering the quality of Mayweather?s last couple of fights on pay-per-view, his fight against a one-armed Filipino and a fight against a Floridian of Haitain descent who didn?t have a snowball?s chance in hell of competing with Money May, the wariness of forking over 50 bucks may be stronger than ever.
But Golovkin is fighting a worthy opponent. Lemieux hits hard. He?s resilient. He?s hungry. Those same qualities applied to most of the men Triple G has fought and defeated, almost all of whom bit the dust within the first few rounds. But Lemieux says he?s ready to shock the world Saturday night, and if he stops Golovkin the world will indeed be shocked, at least that portion of the world that elected to tune in. Still, few believe Lemieux has what it takes to defeat Triple G. It won?t, however, be for want of trying.
HBO is lowballing expectations, not for the fight itself, which has the potential to be Fight of the Year, but for the number of pay-per-view buys they expect. According to Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions who handles Golovkin, ?Anything over 200,000 buys is considered a success and HBO is very optimistic on the numbers that they?re projecting.?
Whether those projections are realistic or not remains to be seen.
As the old stars fade and new stars are created, their ability to generate pay-per-view revenue becomes a touchstone of their viability. Golovkin looks like a natural in that regard. He?s the opposite of Mayweather both in and out of the ring. Mightily skilled, thankfully he?s no fancy Dan. Triple G comes to fight. That might be considered a good thing, except when all is said and done, villainy may be more compelling than a Kazakh killer who resembles a Boy Scout.
