By Allan Fox: Promoter Kathy Duva of Main Events believes that the reason Floyd Mayweather Jr. scheduled his August 26 fight with Conor McGregor so close to the September 16 fight between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady GGG” Golovkin is because he’s trying to FORCE them off the September date. Duva reasons that by Mayweather scheduling his with McGregor so close to Canelo-Golovkin, it will mean fewer PPV buys for their fight.
Duva sees it as a bluff by Mayweather, because his fight with McGregor will be hurt as well by fewer boxing fans purchasing it due to it being so close to the better fight between Canelo and Golovkin on September 16. Duva believes that Mayweather is willing to take that risk because even if he sticks with the August 26 date, he’ll come out ahead the Canelo-Golovkin fight due to his fight with McGreor being scheduled to take place first on August 26.
Duva thinks Floyd is desperate with the way he’s staged his fight before the Canelo-Golovkin fight. It’s a move of desperation on Mayweather’s part, according to Duva.
“It’s kind of desperate to me to try and sneak it in ahead of time,” said Main Events Kathy Duva to Fighthype about Mayweather choose to fight McGregor one month before the huge Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight. ”I don’t know why they can’t wait until November and have a good platform all to yourself. I just don’t understand that. I can’t begin to understand what goes on inside Floyd’s head. It’s not a good month, but whatever. They’re going to do what they’re going to do.”
Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya recently wrote an open letter on his Facebook page, saying that he felt the Mayweather-McGregor fight was badly for boxing. You have to wonder whether Mayweather scheduling his fight with McGregor on August 26 is in response to that move by De La Hoya? I think it be more of the case of Mayweather wanting to take Canelo’s September 16 fight date so that he can get a lot of PPV buys the easy way by scheduling the fight on the Mexican holiday. Mayweather routinely used to schedule his fights on the Mexican holiday weekends up until he retired from boxing in 2015. Canelo then took the dates for himself.
One other possible reason for Mayweather choosing to stage his fight with McGregor before the Canelo-Golovkin fight is he doesn’t want to be upstaged by them. Let’s face it; Canelo and Golovkin are part of a HUGE fight that is going to attract all kinds of attention in the boxing world. It’s most likely going to be a sensational fight with tons of action and a lot of fireworks from start to finish.
With Mayweather going before the Canelo-Golovkin fight, he can upstage by taking the attention from the fight. Mayweather won’t have to come in later on after that fight to face the badly over-matched McGregor. It’s a move that ultimately hurts Mayweather though, because he would be much better off fighting McGregor in November than now. Canelo vs. Golovkin isn’t to anger the boxing world and cause the casual boxing fans to swear off purchasing PPV.
It’s Mayweather’s mismatch against McGregor that is going to likely hurt the sport of boxing due to it either being a one-sided mismatch or a fight that lacks any kind of action. If Mayweather and McGregor fought in November, they would have more boxing fans purchasing their fight because they wouldn’t have to compete with Canelo and Golovkin. They also would be fighting at a time where the interest in boxing would be extremely high due to the excitement from the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight in September. That fight is going to be a great one. The fight isn’t going to hurt the sport like the Mayweather-McGregor circus fight.
”I wouldn’t want to be in their position,” said Duva about Golovkin, Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo. ”I think it’s going to put a dent in Mayweather’ position too, because it’s not a great month. But you know what? They’re going to make a fortune. The problem is going to be the aftermath, because everybody that buys the Mayweather-McGregor fight is going to walk away disappointed just like they did after Pacquiao-Mayweather. Then they’re never going to watch boxing again. Then they’re going to go with, I’m never going to pay for this again,’” said Duva.
I agree with Duva. I think Mayweather is trying to get Golden Boy and Canelo to give up their September date. That’s a date that would help bring in a lot of passive PPV buys for Mayweather if he were to take it for the McGregor fight. Staging the Mayweather-McGregor fight on the Mexican Independence Day holiday in September would assure the success of the fight and bring in a lot more PPV buys than if Mayweather to fight on August 26 or in November.
Mayweather putting his fight with McGregor on August 26 can be interpreted is an aggressive move that puts pressure on Canelo and Golden Boy to think about whether they feel it would be wise for them to tick with the September 16 date. But even if Mayweather were to stick with the August 26 date, he still winds up hurting the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight due to it taking lace first rather than second.
“It looks like they’re trying to make a move to force Canelo off of September so they can get the date that Floyd wants” said Duva. ”I’m not too sure that people that know boxing will probably choose Canelo-Golovkin, the Hispanic fans. But those casual fans that only watch pay-per-view every few years, who are just now still getting over Pacquiao-Mayweather, why did I do this again?’ They’re all unfortunately probably going to go with the one with more hype, which is Mayweather-McGregor. Then they’re going to see it, and ten they’re certainly not going to want to spend money a month later. Mayweather knows that. The people in the UFC know that. So I guess they’re trying to bluff Golden Boy off the September date or they’re going through with it figuring that they’re still going to make a ton of money, and they’d rather be first. You always rather be first. But when you have 2 events that close, it evidently hurts both of them to a certain extent,” said Duva.
Mayweather’s playing a game of chicken by putting his fight with McGregor on August 26. Mayweather is going to see if Canelo and Golden Boy swerve to avoid what could be a huge loss of revenue for them if they stay on the date with the Mayweather-McGregor fight being scheduled so close to their September 16 fight. Mayweather can well afford to lose money because he’s made a lot of money during his career. Mayweather is also in the better position due to his fight scheduled first.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya thought he was outmaneuvering Mayweather by scheduling his fight in Las Vegas, Nevada for September 16 to prevent Mayweather from taking that date. But little did De La Hoya know that Mayweather would go ahead and scheduled his fight right ahead of the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight by just 3 weeks. That move will make it hard for the boxing pubic to purchase the Canelo-Golovkin fight due to the boxing fans not having the money or the interest in purchasing the fight on PPV.
”It’s a circus,” said Duva about the Mayweather-McGregor fight. ”It’ sellable because you’ve got Mayweather and you’ve got McGregor. And those people that are casual fans that don’t follow boxing the way we do and don’t follow MMA the way that the MMA fans do, they’re friends are talking about it. They’re going to go and they’re going to watch it. If you become part of the popular culture, then you’re going to have to watch the fight so you can talk about it the next day. Unfortunately that will be the one that is part of the popular culture, because it’s just how I works. It’s a train wreck, and people like to stop and look at a train wreck,” said Duva.
