Chavez Jr. vs. Vera 2 could be PPV on HBO

By Boxing News - 10/02/2013 - Comments

chavez777By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum reportedly is ready to make the proposed December rematch between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (47-1-1, 32 KO’s) and Brian Vera (23-7, 14 KO’s) a pay-per-view bout if HBO says no to the idea of televising the fight on regular HBO, according to Steve Kim.

That’s going to be a tough ask for the boxing public to pay to see Chavez Jr. and Vera do it again after the controversy of their fight last Saturday night in Carson, California. Arum might have to really stack the undercard to entice boxing fans to want to pay to see Chavez Jr. and Vera do it again.

If the fans had faith that Vera would get a fair shot at winning the fight this time, they might be open to paying to see the fight. But last Saturday, the card stacked against Vera in a huge way with the weigh-in for the fight going from 162 to 173 lbs., and then Vera getting the shaft from the three judges with them giving Chavez Jr. the win.

Steve Kim of Maxboxing said:

When you have a controversial fight like that, it’s tough to ask boxing fans to pay to see a rematch between them because no one wants to be burned again. It’s not that fans don’t like Chavez Jr. To listen to the crowd at the StubHub Center, they clearly favored Chavez Jr., but they didn’t like see Chavez Jr. getting a decision given to him in a fight that he appeared to lose.

It was the same situation for Chavez Jr’s first fight with Carlos Molina in 2005 and his first fight with Matt Vanda in 2008. Chavez Jr. was given a draw and a victory in those two fights, and the Mexican crowd booed loudly both decisions.

Arum may need to bring out some of his Top Rank stars to interest boxing fans into paying to see Chavez Jr. and Vera face each other again. The problem is Arum doesn’t have a lot of big names in his stable other than Brandon Rios, Mike Alvarado, and Manny Pacquiao. Arum’s not going to put any of those guys card to help attract fans. Arum is going to have to hope that HBO says yes to showing Chavez Jr-Vera on regular HBO, because it could be a disaster for Arum if he tries to make the fight a PPV bout.

It would have been a sure thing disaster if he make the fight last Saturday a PPV bout, but a rematch might be far worse. When you have a bad product, you don’t ask fans to pay to see the same thing. Instead you give it away for free and hope that the fans still want to see it. Right now, I have my doubts that any fans would want to pay to see Chavez Jr. and Vera fight each other again.



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