By Sean McDaniel: If the March 13th bout between World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey is going to succeed, it’s going to have to settle for a simple 30 minute special from HBO named “Road to Dallas.”
This has got to be a huge blow for the fight, because the HBO 24/7 specials are great vehicles for attracting casual fans to their big pay-per-view boxing attractions.
There are usually at least three specials to help give unknowing fans a glimpse of the fighters and give them some much needed facts. In this case, boxing fans will have only once chance to see the “Road to Dallas” special. That’s unfortunate because more than in other fights, Pacquiao-Clottey fight really could use at least four HBO 24/7 specials to introduce the unknowing boxing fans to the 32-year-old Clottey.
With only one special to be aired by HBO on the Pacquiao-Clottey fight, it could dramatically reduce the amount of boxing fans that decide to purchase the card. Because if casual boxing fan aren’t familiar with the boxers in a particular fight, then fans won’t be purchasing the fight. It’s a simple as that. Pacquiao is a popular fighter, but he’s not popular enough to draw fans without advertising and marketing of his fights.
Pacquiao has been fortunate in his last three fights to be taking on mega stars Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto. But on March 13th, Pacquiao will be facing Clottey, who most fans don’t have clue one about. I hope that HBO and Pacquiao’s team aren’t counting on people purchasing the fight just because of their familiarity with Pacquiao, because they might be disappointed. Without a star opponent opposing Pacquiao, it takes advertising to get casual fans interested in seeing a fighter they’ve never even heard of.
The “Road to Dallas” Pacquiao-Clottey special will show immediately after the March 6th light welterweight unification fight matching Devon Alexander vs. Juan Urango. But that fight probably needs a 24/7 special of it’s own because neither fighter is well known to casual boxing fans and it likely won’t be a fight that gets high numbers of viewers.
The way things are looking, the Pacquiao-Clottey fight will live and die on the hardcore boxing fans that are fans of Pacquiao. If they don’t know who Pacquiao is or don’t care about his opponent Clottey, then few casual fans will waste their time and money purchasing the expensive $49.95 fight. The undercard has few recognizable stars to make counter balance the lack of a good main event bout.
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