Doom and gloom about boxing's popularity a little premature
By D.J. Summers
By D.J. Summers
Last Saturday, the world took a break from shrieking about
boxing’s death and talked about how monumental the fight between Floyd
Mayweather Jr. and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez would be. After Mayweather posted
another technically brilliant and spectacularly boring decision win, we might
realize together what overstatements both things were.
Just as predicted, hard-hitting Canelo tried to slug
Mayweather’s head off his shoulders, and just as predicted, Mayweather was too
fast and too smart. For 12 rounds, Money May picked at the frustrated Mexican
with his jab, rolled his head behind a crouch, and refused to let his heavier
opponent close enough to do any damage.
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| Isaac Brekken/AP |
The only surprising thing about the fight was that one of
the judges scored it a 114-114 draw. Canelo was undefeated at 42-0, a heavy
hitter, and a national treasure in boxing-wild Mexico, but the fight didn’t
come anywhere near the hype.
The Twitterverse hash tagged it “The One.” People who can’t
say how many pounds in a super welterweight gave their venomous opinions about
Mayweather’s prowess and how Canelo didn’t have the strategy to beat him, or
vice versa. From ESPN to the very lowest Facebook post, people knew it would be
a fight of such raging epicness that we have no choice but to fall back at
boxing’s feet, or that it was the last fight in history that would make such a
buzz.
It almost hearkens us back to the Guerrero fight earlier
this year. Or maybe to the De La Hoya fight in 2007, or any of the other death
knells for boxing that have been broadcast in the last half-decade.
Mayweather doesn't call himself “Money” for nothing. He’s a
savvy self-promoter. The highest paid athlete in the country, he made over $40
million apiece from his only two bouts of 2013.
Believe it, Money talks; He knew how to tub-thump the Canelo
fight against his 2007 defeat of Oscar De La Hoya, and that the Mexican fan
base would churn out their money for the record setting $75 Pay-per-view buy.
Money knew that Mexican immigrants are an enormous influx of American culture
and bringing their cultural passion for boxing with them, that they have a
powerful urge to reclaim the Mexican boxing kingship from the man who took it
away from them. He knows Mexicans are part of the reason Pay-per-view is still
dominated by boxing, not UFC, despite the mixed martial arts community’s young
popularity.
Money also knows the fear the boxing community has about
mortality and knows how to play it. “I feel like I’m the last of my breed,” he
said, leaving the world to lament the “last great American prizefighter” before
realizing both statements are essentially meaningless sounds bites. Putting his
own American Dream story against the upcoming Mexican hunger is too much not to
pay attention to.
Mayweather also has a talent for choosing opponents we think
can beat him right up until the moment they step in the ring together and
realize the notion was absurd. It’s about the appearance of giving dangerous
fighters a chance, and the whole world thought Canelo could beat the talk out
of Mayweather until that first jab landed and Canelo chased it like a slow
toddler.
Still, when Money May drums up the hype, we watch. The Mayweather-Canelo fight broke 2.2 million PPV purchases and set the new PPV record with $150 million. The live-gate for the
fight set a new record of $18.6 million. Media outlets with no natural business
like VICE covered the buildup.
Meanwhile, boxing’s viewership numbers have gone up the last
few years. They still sit atop the HBO/Showtime/PPV hill. De la Hoya and his
Golden Boy Promotions have a lucrative, highly visible Monday Night Fights on
the new Fox Sports 1 channel alongside UFC events. Primetime channels like CBS
Sports have ongoing contractual negotiations with Showtime fighters.
Every time an uninformed person says, “boxing is dying,” one
of Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s millions of dollars gets its wings.
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