By Chester Rivers: The truth is Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the most watched pay per view boxer on the planet. His fights generate on average 1.2 million pay per view buys. Is it Mayweather’s star power that is the contributing factor to his success or is it something no one would dare write about for of fear of retaliation from readers? Let’s investigate!
Floyd Mayweather Jr. fighting on Cinco de Mayo (May 5) or Mexican Independence Day (Sept. 16) has become as traditional as countdown parties on New Years Eve. Floyd’s next fight is scheduled for May 3 against hard hitting Marcos Maidana of Argentina.
How much does the race of Mayweather opponents manner? Since May 2007, Floyd has fought a total of eight times. Of those eight opponents 5 were of Mexican ancestry, 1 Puerto Rican, 1 African American and 1 Caucasian. Ironically, the one fight that did not reach a million buys (850,000 pay per view buys) was against the Caucasian, Ricky Hatton. Furthermore, the fight against Hatton was also the only fight not scheduled on one of the Mexican holidays.It was fought on December 7, 2007.
Floyd’s two biggest fights in terms of revenue were against Oscar De La Hoya and Saul Alvarez. Those fights garnered 2.4 million and 2.2 million pay per view buys respectfully. Both fighters, at the time, were considered Mexico’s most popular fighter.
Many of Mayweather’s supporters would argue that his third highest grossing fight came against Shane Moseley an African American. That’s true! The fight against Moseley generated 1.5 million buys. Does this totally destroy my logic? Absolutely NOT! Prior to the Mayweather fight, Moseley conquered Mexico’s own Antonio Margarito. Margarito is the only man that Mayweather has legitimately ducked. He (Moseley) also own two victories over De La Hoya. Shane Moseley calls Big Bear, California home. Big Bear is a heavily Hispanic populated area.
That brings us to Mayweather’s decision to choose Maidana over Amir Khan. Khan already owns a victory over Maidana in the ring. When Floyd conducted his Twitter poll to choose his next opponent, the fans clearly chose Khan. So, why did Mayweather choose Maidana? Mayweather’s uncle, Jeff Mayweather, admitted in an interview that fighting Khan on Cinco de Mayo is a tough sale. We must also look at Floyd’s own words, “Golden Boy keep building these guys up and I keep knocking them back down.” Floyd made this statement during the final press conference for his fight against Saul Alvarez. Floyd was referring to Victor Ortiz and Robert Guerrero. What does Maidana have in common with these fighters? Both fighters, like Maidana, were coming off the biggest wins of their careers. Both Ortiz and Guerrero defeated Andre Berto for a share of the welterweight title. Maidana recently scored the biggest win of his career with a win over Adrien Broner.
It takes two to make a boxing match. Can Floyd sale a million pay per views fighting any “Joe Blow” on any given day? The unspoken truth is, NO!
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