By Chris Williams: I was stunned to learn recently that the September 15th fight card headlined by WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) vs. Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) will be going for $49.99 on HBO pay per view. That’s about $30 more than I expected it to go for given the lack of appealing undercard fights.

The fight, which will be taking place at the Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, does have a great main event between Chavez Jr. and Martinez, but that’s about all I see that’s appealing on the card. I’m not one to want to pay $49.99 just for one measly interesting fight. I want to see at least four good fights for that kind of money, especially in this terrible economy. $50 is half of a monthly cable if you have premium channels and I think that number is WAY too high for this fight card.

This is what you’re getting for $49.99:

Roman Martinez vs. Miguel Beltran Jr
Sergio Gabriel Martinez vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr
Matthew Macklin vs. Joachim Alcine
Mike Lee vs. TBA [opponent has yet to be found]

I don’t see the Martinez-Beltran Jr. being worth much because Martinez, 29, has only fought once since losing his WBO super featherweight title to Ricky Burns in September 2010. Martinez fought once last year, and hasn’t fought all this year. Sorry, I don’t want to pay to see this fight. Frankly, this is an ESPN2 level fight as far as I’m concerned.

The Macklin-Alcine fight is another one that I don’t see being worthy of PPV. Macklin has lost his last two fights and that automatically disqualifies him for me wanting to see him fight. Why should I have to pay to see a guy that has lost his last two fights? Alcine is 36-years-old and has won only one out of his last three fights. He was knocked out in one round by Alfredo Angulo in July 2010. Sorry, I don’t see him as someone that I want to pay to see. I don’t even want see him fight period, not even on ESPN2.

Mike Lee vs. TBA. Nope, I don’t want to pay to see a prospect fight.

Okay, so there seems to be a lack of appealing fights on this fight card. As such, I think Bob Arum could bring in a lot of PPV buys while at the same time doing a good service to the fans who have to pay to see this card by dropping the price a tad bit to say the $15 to $20 range. Even that is much too high in my book. I see it as a nice $10 fight without a really good undercard. If Arum would couple this fight with guys like Manny Pacquiao, Tim Bradley, Miguel Cotto, and Vanes Martirosyan, I think it would be well worth the $49.99 asking price.