By Robert Elmore: An undercard is just as important as the main event in boxing. Now usually fans will not begin to fill the arena until its gets close to the main event. If a promoter has a history of putting together bad undercards, then it makes your audience less likely to tune in.
The idea is display up and coming fighters to the casual fan. Most hardcore boxing fans tune in just to see the main event. But as of late, many have hated on the genius of Floyd Mayweather.
Many have claimed it was Saul Alvarez and Miguel Cotto that generated the 1.5 million on may 5th of last year. I would say they are right. The Alvarez-Mosley fight was billed as the co main event to showcase the Cinnamon Kid. This is only the smart thing to do to maximize an event.
If you have one fighter on the east that has a giant following, one from the west, one from north, and south, why not bring them together to have a huge event? The idea is to generate revenue and big pay per view numbers. That’s why it makes me laugh when people try to justify an event that falls below expectations.
For example, on March 13th 2010, Manny Pacquiao took on Joshua Clottey, with an undercard that wasn’t great. Humberto Soto fought David Diaz; Jose Castillo fought Alphonso Gomez and John Duddy fought Michael Medina. The event only did 700,000 buys and generated 35.3 million in revenue. On many boxing sites, Pac followers said that it only proved Pac’s drawing power because no one knew who Joshua Clottey was. That same year Floyd Mayweather took on Shane Mosley on May 4th.
The undercard; Jessie Vargas fought Arturo Morua; Said Quali fought Hector Saldivia; and Saul Alvarez fought Jose Miguel Cotto. The fight generated 1.4 million buys and 78 million in revenue. I have to admit Alvarez does bring in a nice size of the crowd and pay per view buys. But since Alvarez has yet to headline his own event, no one can really say how much of the buys and crowd he’s responsible for.
It would have been genius to put Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on the undercard of Pac’s fights to bolster sales. Pac name does carry a lot of weight though. Bringing in 700,000 buys for Clottey and 900,000 buys for Bradley is pretty good. One could argue that Floyd’s name is just as big. He did 1.2 million against a lesser known; then; Victor Ortiz. Only the hard care boxing fans knew who he was and that he quit against Marcos Maidana. Ortiz came to prominence when he beat Andre Berto for the WBC title.
So having a strong undercard is good thing and not to be taken for granted. I know you can’t fill the card with all big names because of all the stuff that goes into making a bout. A strong undercard equals a strong main event.
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