By T.B: It’s no secret that Floyd Mayweather Jr is the pay-per-view king when it comes to boxing. Floyd has set the bar so high when it comes to PPV that anything under 1 million buys is considered a bomb in Floyd’s eyes.
As of today 2 of 3 fights which Floyd has fought under his contract with Showtime have not hit the mystical bench mark of 1 million buys.
I know this is where some of you will argue that both the Robert Guerrero fight and the first Marcos Maidana fight both did 1 million buys. Stop it and let it go. They didn’t. Showtime has yet to release an “official number for the Mayweather-Guerrero fight much less the first Mayweather-Maidana fight and that only means one thing: they were both under a million buys.
If you remember the Canelo fight PPV numbers came out the following Tuesday. So as the saying goes.” The longer it takes the worse it is”. Sure Stephen Espinoza has said he’s confident that the Mayweather-Maidana fight reached 1 million buys, great, but what about an official number. So for the sake of argument let’s use the truth and move on.
The big question is why has Floyd’s PPV numbers gone down as of late? Yes, the PPV numbers across the board have gone down. Even Manny Pacquiao, the first and only eight-division world champion, has seen a dramatic decrease in his PPV numbers. The one guy who was thought to be untouchable, as far as PPV goes, is Floyd but as I stated above not even Floyd is exempt any more.
In my opinion Floyd’s low PPV numbers can be explained by some “maybes.” Let’s look at those “maybes” first then we’ll look at why Canelo Alvarez might be having an effect on Floyd’s lower than usual but still better than everyone else’s PPV buys.
1- Way too many PPV events to choose from. As Bob Arum said “PPV was meant for great fights not for okay fights.” From Mayweather vs. Maidana to Pacquiao vs. Tim Bradley to Miguel Cotto vs. Sergio Martinez. There are way too many so-so fights to choose from and the average boxing fan isn’t into adding an extra $70 bucks a month to an already to high cable bill.
2- Floyd went from HBO to Showtime. HBO has almost twice as many subscribers as Showtime so it could be as simple as less people seeing Floyd’s “All Access” which is huge when it comes to promoting a fight. HBO’s highly acclaimed 24/7 is seen by twice as many people which translates into PPV buys.
3- Floyd fighting guys he wants to fight and not guys the public wants. No need to mention Pacquiao, we all know it isn’t happening. In my recollection I don’t remember any one asking Floyd to “take out Robert Guerrero” or anyone saying “Maidana ….you’re next”. Boxing fans did scream for Floyd to fight Canelo and look what happened with the PPV numbers.
4- The fans just starting to tire of the same old song and dance Floyd has put on year in and year out. How many Justin Bieber selfies does the public need. But on the other hand, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
But the one reason I believe Floyd’s PPV numbers aren’t what they used to be (again, to be fair, Floyd’s numbers are still better than anyone else’s, but remember Floyd set the standard of 1 million) is the Canelo Alvarez effect. When Floyd fought Miguel Cotto and Victor Ortiz his PPV buys hit a reported 1.5 and 1.2 million buys. It’s no coincidence, at least to me, that it was also the last 2 times Canelo Alvarez fought on Mayweather’s undercards. Canelo Alvarez did not fight on the undercard of the Guerrero fight nor did he fight on the Maidana undercard. The one fight that did amazing in the PPV department was the Canelo vs. Floyd fight. It’s hard to argue, in my opinion, that Floyd hasn’t benefitted from being associated with Canelo Alvarez. I know Cotto vs. Floyd sells itself and was no doubt going to hit 1 million anyways, but I’m just saying Canelo may have driven those PPV a little bit.
Mayweather hit or passed 1 million PPV buys on every fight Canelo Alvarez was involved in. Mayweather has yet to hit 1 million PPV buys on any fight Canelo Alvarez is not involved with. Coincidence? You tell me. One thing is for sure, Floyd has another chance to prove he can survive without Canelo’s help of being on the undercard this September in his rematch with Maidana. If early indications are correct Floyd needs to pull something out of a hat to push “Mayham” over the million buy mark because when it comes to “buzz” there is very little. But, now that Mayweather has gone back on his promise of never working with Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) again, maybe GBP can come up with a decent undercard to help create that “buzz,” but it will have to be without the help of Canelo’s name.
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