Where is the buzz for Cotto-Canelo?

By Boxing News - 11/18/2015 - Comments

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By Michael Montero – In case you haven’t noticed, one of the most anticipated match ups in recent years is going down this Saturday night in Las Vegas. Normally during a fight week of this magnitude, fans on social media and boxing chat rooms would be buzzing, in full-on “fight mode”. But there seems to be a noticeable lack of energy surrounding the middleweight clash between lineal champion Miguel Cotto and challenger Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Why? Well, to use a boxing term – perhaps it’s a “combination” of things.

Catch Weight

Much to the dismay of boxing fans, Cotto-Canelo will be contested at a catch weight of 155 pounds. Catch weights go way back in boxing, but in recent years they have become all too common. Cotto is certainly no stranger to them; in his previous bout he drained Aussie Daniel Geale down to 157 pounds and in his title winning effort against Sergio Martinez, he forced the Argentinian to shed off a pound below the middleweight limit (159). Canelo’s last three fights were contested at 155 pounds and before that, pound for pound kingpin Floyd Mayweather forced him to melt down to 152. Perhaps all of the catch weight business in supposed “title fights” over the last two years has waned fan interest?

Titles

By now you’ve heard that the WBC stripped Miguel Cotto of his title belt, just days before he was set to defend it. According to Cotto he was being asked to pay over $1.1M in fees to the sanctioning body – including a substantial amount as ‘step aside’ cash to mandatory challenger Gennady Golovkin. Clearly the Puerto Rican has no desire to face ‘GGG’ should he defeat Canelo Saturday night, and that may upset some fans, but who could blame the man for not wanting to fork over seven figures in fees? Either way, the belt is still on the line for Alvarez and both men will be fighting for the mythical lineal title that boxing purists swear by. Should all of this title nonsense even matter to the fans?

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Boxing can be a tough sell late in the year, especially pay per view cards. Generally speaking, September is the cutoff month for big PPV matches. By the fourth quarter winter sports are in full swing, premium cable network budgets are tapped, and boxing fans’ wallets are empty after having purchased PPV’s earlier in the year. On top of that, this fight is just days before the Thanksgiving holiday and it’s at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, a venue which hasn’t hosted a significant boxing event in years. Who wants to go to Las Vegas in late November anyway? Perhaps this bout should have been held in New York, where Cotto has packed arenas for years. How about Los Angeles, the hotbed of boxing in America, with a substantial Mexican fan contingency?

The Mayweather-Pacquiao backlash

The effects – positive and negative – of the lackluster “super fight” between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd are still being discovered. But one thing is clear, millions of casual fight fans were left with a bad taste in their mouth after the overhyped money grab. Could this have something to do with the lack of buzz for Cotto-Canelo? In a year when boxing fans have already been asked to fork over $100 for “the fight of the century”, there was a PPV in September (Mayweather-Berto), another in October (Golovkin-Lemieux) and now Cotto-Canelo Saturday night. Much like the Mayweather cards, this PPV is more expensive than normal at $75. And then there are the tickets, which were priced way too high and now the promoters are in a mad dash to sell off numerous remaining seats at a discounted rate, just days before the bout. Who in their right mind would have believed a fight between Cotto and Canelo would have trouble selling out?!

A Perfect Storm

Andre Ward was slated to be on the card as the co-main, but his original choice of opponent was rejected by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. When he got a second opponent confirmed (another no-hoper who had no business being the in the ring with Ward), the former super middleweight champion suddenly withdrew from the card due to injury. Promoter Roc nation scrambled, signed Cuban slickster Guillermo Rigondeaux, and threw him on the card in Ward’s place. All of this happened within two weeks of fight night. Then last Saturday night, MMA superstar Ronda Rousey was upset by former boxing champion Holly Holm, which set the Twittersphere ablaze. Just days before Cotto-Canelo is set to take place, many boxing fans still tweeting/chatting about the boxing champion that upset the UFC applecart. On top of all this, has anyone heard a peep out of Jay-Z? I mean he is the face of promoter Roc Nation, you know, the company that represents the champion headlining this card.

Had Cotto-Canelo taken place last year, many analysts would have estimated a million buys on PPV. But considering all of the missteps noted above – the lack of promotion, last second scramble to secure the co-feature, the overpriced event in an oversaturated market and the peculiar venue – they’ll be lucky to get 600K buys Saturday night. None of this changes the fact that it will still be a great night of boxing headlined by a likely fight of the year candidate. It’s just a shame that once again many boxing fans are left feeling as if this could have been so much more.

Questions, comments, hate mail – you know what to do. Twitter / Youtube / Facebook / Instagram: @MonteroOnBoxing



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