The next big boxing mega-fight takes place on Saturday night from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas when former unified junior middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) moves up in weight to battle Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) for the middleweight championship.
The last time a boxing mega-fight took in place was in May when Floyd Mayweather defeated Manny Pacquiao by unanimous decision. While big on hype, the fight didn’t deliver inside the ring. Fans were outraged for having to spend $100 on a pay-per-view to only see little action. Since the fight, lawsuits have been filed against Pacquiao for failing to disclose his shoulder injury before consumers purchased tickets and pay-per-views. Mayweather also felt the backlash when his fight against Andre Berto in September garnered only 450,000 PPV buys.
Why should people believe Alvarez vs. Cotto will be any different than what they saw six months ago?
One of the biggest rivalries in boxing has been between Mexican and Puerto Rican fighters. The sport is widely popular in both countries and some of those fights have produced some of the best the sport has ever seen.
It all started in 1934 when Sixto Escobar became Puerto Rico’s first world champion, scoring a ninth-round knockout of Mexico’s Rodolfo “Baby” Casanova. Other classic bouts include: Mexico’s Jose Luis Ramirez’s fourth-round knockout of Puerto Rico’s Edwin Rosario in San Juan in 1984 in a rematch for the lightweight championship, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., at the time the biggest star in Mexico, decimating Hector “Macho” Camacho Sr. in a highly anticipated 1992 showdown and the biggest worldwide success when Felix Trinidad beat Oscar De La Hoys by a controversial majority decision in 1999. De La Hoya-Trinidad did 1.4 million PPV buys, which at the time was the largest non-heavyweight fight of all-time.
All of those great fights aside, Alvarez vs. Cotto is the biggest and could be the best of them all.
“History shows when you put a Puerto Rican fighter and a Mexican fighter inside the ring, you are guaranteed to get excitement and fireworks, so everyone across the globe is really, really excited,” said De La Hoya, Alvarez’s promoter
Mexico’s Alvarez turned professional in 2005. He has defeated seven world champions, beating the likes of Shane Mosley, Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout and Josesito L?pez. And the only blemish on his record was in 2013 to Floyd Mayweather by unanimous decision. The fight sold 2.2 million PPV units and made in excess of $150 million in revenue. Ever since then, the 25-year-old Alvarez won all three of his fight, two by knockout, including a Knockout of the Year candidate over James Kirkland in May.
“There’s a great history between Mexico and Puerto Rico, and this is going to be an historic fight, another one for the storybooks,” Alvarez said. “I have a lot of pride to be fighting for my country.”
Puerto Rico’s Cotto has seen a career resurgence since aligning with Freddie Roach in 2013. Cotto has won all three fights by KO since teaming with the seven-time Trainer of the Year. The highlight was winning the WBC middleweight championship stopping Sergio Martinez in June 2014. Cotto has faced the best boxing has to offer: Mayweather, Pacquiao, Martinez, Mosley and Antonio Margarito. At 35, Cotto is still going strong. He is the best fighter to ever come out of Puerto Rico, winning four world championships in four different weight classes.
“I’m Puerto Rican; Canelo is Mexican,” Cotto said. “The rivalry between Puerto Rico and Mexico is huge. It’s history. “There’s a lot of history behind it, and we’re going to contribute to that.”
The only knock so far leading into Saturday’s fight is the lack of buzz. Mayweather and Pacquiao were able to garner that. They were the two of the biggest athletes in the world. It was a fight five years in the making. The fight drew celebrities like Tom Brady, Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg and Magic Johnson. The fight set a PPV record with 4.6 million buys, generating more than $400 in revenue, a $72 million gate with 16,219 tickets sold. It had the atmosphere like a Super Bowl.
While Alvarez- Cotto doesn’t have the build like Mayweather- Pacquiao, it will still do very well commercially. The fight is expected to reach at least 500,000 PPV buys which will be more than Mayweather vs. Berto and Pacquiao’s battle against Chris Algieri last November (little bit over 300,000 buys).
This will be an all-action fight given their respective fighting styles. In 91 combined fights, 65 have ended by KO. If you chose to fork over $60, it will be money well spent due to the main event (and a pretty good undercard).
“It’s going to be a great fight,” Alvarez said. “I want this to be an historic fight. I’m honored to be fighting a true warrior. It’s an honor, and I’m going to prepare very well because I want to win this fight.”
