The reason Cuban boxer Guillermo Rigondeaux is not getting lucrative fights despite his recent victory over four-division world champion Nonito Donaire, could be traced to his boring and less entertaining fighting style. Rigondeaux is being promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions and there has been rumors swirling around that the Cuban is likely to be junked by HBO because of his “not so entertaining” fighting style which makes him harder to sell in the regular HBO boxing events. Likewise Arum seems to be dilly-dallying on his next fight as Donaire looks like he isn’t interested anymore in a rematch with Rigondeaux, saying he is moving up in weight class as he was already walking at 140 pounds. Other fighters who are less-entertaining in the ring even if they are almost always victorious in their fights, suffer the same fate as Rigondeaux. A case in point is Palm Springs boxing star Timothy Bradley, who successfully snatched Manny Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight belt in a controversial fashion. After sharing the spotlight with then pound-for-pound king, Bradley expected an immediate and lucrative rematch against Pacquiao. But Arum, who promotes both fighters, may have viewed Bradley as a hard fighter to sell, owing to his low fan base and lack of marketing skill to sell himself to the boxing public. Looking at the the PPV data of his last fight against Pacquiao, Arum may have realized that Bradley would not contribute enough to make the rematch financially viable, despite his being undefeated in his professional career. The revenue to be generated in the upcoming fight between Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez is expected to be low. Although Marquez is a top PPV attraction owing to his huge Mexican fans, his PPV history has surpassed a million mark only when he fought the likes of Pacquiao and Mayweather. Arum will be lucky to generate half a million buys for the Bradley-Marquez fight because of Bradley’s weak PPV performance record. Bradley has not done much to develop his fans and supporters for him to become a future PPV attraction. Bradley is a “hard sell” from a promoter’s point of view. His fan base number is very low and he has not done much to improve his image in order to attract more supporters. Marketability is very important to a fighter as it is one of the factors usually considered by promoters in determining his fight purse. In Bradley’s case, his low PPV appeal contributes to his inability to secure a huge purse for his fights despite his unbeaten professional record. Professional boxers are fighting to earn a living and they defend on their prize money and endorsements for their income. But even if they remain on top of their careers, many of them remain underpaid because of their lack of ability to entertain their fans. In the process, they remain unpopular and promoters usually have hard time looking for opponents that will help them generate more revenues to stage a financially viable fight.
