By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA/WBC 154lb champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is taking partial credit for the May 2nd fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao taking place.
Canelo, 24, thinks that one of the reasons for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight taking place is because Canelo said repeatedly that he would be fighting on 5/2 unless Mayweather fought Pacquiao.
If Mayweather had fought anyone other than Pacquiao, Canelo was determined to stage his fight against James Kirkland on May 2nd in a fight on regular non-pay-per-view on HBO. With Canelo’s fight not being on PPV, he would have had nothing to lose with his fight being seen by fewer boxing fans.
It wouldn’t have mattered, because Canelo wouldn’t be losing money like he would if his fight were on PPV. In that respect, Canelo could have played the part of a spoiler in diminishing Mayweather’s PPV numbers if he had fought someone else rather than Pacquiao.
“I’d like to think that I had something to do with Mayweather-Pacquiao being made because I always said the only way I was moving from the May 2nd date was if they made the big fight happen,” Canelo said via ESPN Deportes. “So because of that I feel like I had a hand in the fight actually happening. It’s good for the sport and good for the fans that they are fighting. I am happy for them.”
It’s going to be interesting to see if Canelo decides on playing the part of a spoiler later this year for the next Mexican holiday September on September 19th. Mayweather is likely going to be fighting on this date. However, if Canelo chooses to compete with Mayweather, Canelo will be hurt in this case because his fight will likely be a pay-per-view bout instead of on regular HBO.
That means if Canelo decides to stubbornly compete against Mayweather against his own best interest, then he’ll likely see far fewer PPV buys. If boxing fans have to choose between two PPV events on the same night, you can bet that they’ll be picking Mayweather rather than Canelo.
Of course, Mayweather could make this academic if he chooses to fight Pacquiao a second time. Canelo would then have to jump off the date no matter how much he wants to fight on the date. Like the May 2nd fight, Canelo could then take credit for the second Mayweather-Pacquiao fight taking place.
Canelo is better off letting Mayweather take the Mexican holidays until he retires, because he’s simply too big of a fan draw and too big of a PPV star for Canelo to be trying to compete against him. Canelo’s pay-per-views have been attracting a little over 300,000 buys.
In contrast, Mayweather has been getting around 1 million or more if you average them out in the last two years. Mayweather is just much more popular than Canelo right now. That’s not to say that Canelo won’t become a huge PPV star himself someday, but the fact of the matter is he’s not right now. It’s silly for Canelo to be trying to compete with Mayweather for the same dates.
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