By Chris Williams: Bob Arum may feel that he’s about to strike gold by putting his best fighter Manny Pacquiao on CBS/Showtime where Arum hopes Pacquiao’s fight with 39-year-old Mosley will draw a huge amount of viewers and win over a lot of new fans for the sport of boxing. The CBS deal will allow for a lot of advertising for the Pacquiao-Mosley mismatch to be shown on non-premium cable channels and thus will reach many more viewers than in the past when fights like this were only advertised on HBO or Showtime.
The one problem that may prevent the network from receiving huge numbers in the future for boxing, I feel, is because when the new viewers pay a lot of money to watch the Pacquiao vs. Mosley fight on pay-per-view, they’re going to be expecting to see an exciting action packed fight between two guys that will make it worth their while to have dumped $50 to $60 on the fight. But when they see Pacquiao basically beating up on an old Mosley, who’s arms are paralyzed with age like they were in his fights with Sergio Mora and Floyd Mayweather Jr., these same boxing fans are going to be likely put off and won’t be back.
This is why it’s always best to put your best product forward at all times and not look to just take advantage of casual fans by putting fights on with guys that they may have heard of, like Mosley, but are totally unaware that he’s been shot for at least year or so. You have to look for the most exciting opponents for times like this. It’s like having an important guest come over your house. You want to make sure you get the best meal prepared along with the finest silverware and china for them. You don’t to give them some week-old meatloaf thrown down on some dirty, cracked and scratched up dishes, hoping that they won’t notice. Believe me, they will and they’ll be turned off completely. This is what I see Arum doing by serving up the shot Mosley in a fight against Pacquiao. It’s a mismatch and it’s going to turn off a lot of fans in my view.
Comments are closed.