Unified governing bodies, team sport-like standings, the return of Floyd Mayweather and big screen fights in 3-D. Boxing industry heavyweights are filled with ideas on how to face a future without golden boy Oscar De La Hoya, the cash cow who’s delivered six of the sport’s 16 highest grossing pay-per-view events ever.
The sport’s first big test of life after De La Hoya comes next week, when Time Warner ( TWX – news – people )-owned HBO airs its first PPV match of 2009: a junior welterweight title bout between Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton. Expectations are modest–HBO execs say they’d be thrilled to see the May 2 fight flirt with a million pay-per-view buys. At $49.95 a pop, it’s priced $5 below Pacquiao’s Dec. 6 drubbing of De La Hoya, which drew 1.25 million customers.
“A good fight, and a salable fight, but a tougher make without Oscar,” says longtime boxing maven Bert Sugar. “He was the ATM of boxing.” One good sign: The $9 million live gate at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas sold out quickly.
De La Hoya made things official on April 14 with a made-for-TV retirement announcement in front of the Staples Center in Los Angeles. In reality, the 35-year-old’s career ended five months earlier when Pacquiao battered him for eight rounds in a technical knockout victory that put De La Hoya in a Las Vegas hospital. (See “Boxing’s Last Golden Boy.”)
The question for boxing now is whether Pacquiao (48-3-2) can wear the mantle of top dog as well De La Hoya did. Common sense says no. The 29-year-old Philippine’s boxing skills may match De La Hoya’s in his prime, but his media skills don’t.
De La Hoya-Pacquiao drew fellow celebrities by the dozen last December; that’s not likely for Hatton-Pacquiao. But while De La Hoya won’t be in the ring, his company, Golden Boy Promotions, will. Golden Boy is promoting Hatton, the popular British fighter who?s gone 45-1 as a pro. The firm closed deals with several Vegas casinos to house enough closed circuit space for 20,000 fans, at a price of $50 a head. Add in more than 1,000 restaurants and bars around the U.S., and the fight’s audience grows by another half million or so potential viewers.
Golden Boy Chief Richard Schaeffer is already looking past the coming bout. He’s been trying to convince Anschutz Entertainment Group, the sports and entertainment conglomerate with a double-digit stake in Golden Boy, to put his next big fight on movie screens across the country through its Regal Cinemas chain. That fight, “which could include the return of Floyd Mayweather,” Schaeffer says, would be shown to theater goers in 3-D.
“This could get us another whole audience,” he says. Mayweather, a former champion of five weight classes whose 2007 bout with De La Hoya drew a record 2.4 million PPV buys, hasn’t dropped any public hints on whether he’ll stay retired. Still only 32, he’d be greeted with open arms by a boxing industry looking for its next financial windfall.
