SACRAMENTO, California, United States of America — The Los Angeles Times and the rest of California’s major media outlets still have to redeem themselves with the first significant story on the upcoming Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales fight.
Despite their vast resources, the Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune, Orange County Register and the Sacramento Bee — the five biggest papers of the state — have demurred from treating the run-up to the fight as a major sports story. In contrast, La Opinion, the most circulated Spanish-language daily in California, has plugged the bout since it was announced.
In a span of a week alone, from Feb. 28 to March 7, the ethnic newspaper has written four major items on the card.
Filipino newspapers around the state have done their part by mostly reprinting stories from Manila-based periodicals.
Last Monday, the Los Angeles Daily News, a poor cousin to the Times in terms of circulation, somewhat ended the majors’ long drought of publicity for the bout — now only six days away.
The Daily News piece featured the thoughts of promoter Bob Arum on why tickets and pay-per-view subscriptions are being gobbled up — making prime media coverage irrelevant to the March 19 Las Vegas junior lightweight fight.
In a short item lumped with other boxing stories, the News said the match-up is “highly anticipated.” The newspaper quoted Arum, who will promote the fight, as saying: “It is unbelievable. I have never seen ticket sales for a fight like this so strong.”
That the Pacquiao-Morales fight is a hot ticket can be attributed to the aggressive marketing efforts of HBO — the giant cable company.
Despite the lack of “advance stories” about the fight in the mainstream media, Arum reported that 11,000 of the 14,500 tickets that were available for the fight at the MGM Grand have been sold.
The card will be available on HBO pay-per-view for $44.95 and on closed-circuit television.
The News reported that Arum “expects the pay-per-view numbers to be higher than the 325,000 buys for Morales-Marco Antonio Barrera III last November.”
