By Terence Dooley

When news of Saul Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 stoppages) versus Amir Khan (31-3, 19 early) came through the first thing many will have thought was probably 'Wow, just wow - this must be how Doctor Manhattan felt when he discovered what Adrian Veidt had been up to.'  It came from left field and out of the blue in an age of information oversaturation.

Boxing fans, though, are more like Anthony Hopkins’s character in Fracture.  Charged as a young man with the task of finding flaws in eggs, his character found an imperfection in every single egg he looked at—I am sure that most people reading this can relate.

So, yes, your mind turns to the size difference, the ludicrous catchweight situation that has turned a thriving, positive middleweight division into a laughing stock, the fact Khan has not fought since May and anything else you can think of.  You would be forgiven for thinking that not a single fan would hit Khan with the ‘Taking a huge fight to duck Kell Brook’ stick.

However, some did take to Twitter and forums to slate the Bolton-based boxer for meeting Alvarez, a Mexican, in Las Vegas on a Mexican holiday weekend live on HBO PPV when he could have gone for Brook at Wembley stadium in front of 80,000 fans live on Sky Sports PPV.

A small minority painted this risky move as a blatant duck.  It was dispiriting response for a number of reasons, chief amongst them fact that it smacks of a lack of knowledge about the basics of boxing economics.

Firstly, let’s remove the 80,000 elephant of Wembley from the room.  When Howard Foster stopped George Groves in the first of his two fights with Carl Froch the third man inadvertently created the first drops of what became a perfect storm.  Controversy, public opinion, hype, brilliant promoting and everything else converged to create what has been up to this point a one-off.

Unfortunately, though, some cannot look beyond that fight, that figure and that stadium, arguing that Britain is the place where fighters should come to draw crowds and earn big money.  If we speak to that point and say that is the case then why have the likes have Floyd Mayweather never come here to earn life changing money in front of huge crowds?

Yes, Britain produces big crowds.  However, the real money is in America, specifically Las Vegas, so a big fight over there is going to have more draw than an equally big fight in the U.K.

Still not convinced?  Draw up a list of huge, important fights that have taken place in Las Vegas then draw up a list that have taken place here in the U.K.  Which list is longer?  If you have a grasp of boxing history it will be the Vegas list.  Have fighters been selflessly denying themselves big money by snubbing the U.K.?  No, it is because the revenue streams are bigger in the U.S. despite smaller crowds.

Returning to Khan, how can it then be argued that a fight against Alvarez is not as big as a showdown with Brook?  The best way to think about it is to turn your mind to football.  Local derbies excite the fans, but there are often bigger games to be had against clubs in different parts of the country.  That is the crux of the matter, Brook-Khan excites British fans, some of whom in turn believe that because it is huge over here it is the biggest fight out there for both men.

If you were to flip the situation and a comebacking Floyd Mayweather offered Brook a showdown in Vegas would the Sheffield-based IBF welterweight titlist turn that down to take on Khan, of course not.  In that scenario, could he be accused of ducking Khan by facing Floyd?

We have been here before.  Ricky Hatton against Junior Witter was seen as a big domestic battle, but Hatton opted to build his name in America in order to chase a fight against Mayweather.  British fans did not like it and would have had a right to vent had Hatton not got that one yet he eventually reached his target and secured a huge money-spinner.

When I spoke to Khan for Boxing Monthly in the summer he was in the same position; he would have faced a lot of flack had it not worked out.  “Ricky did the same thing,” he said when speaking to me at his Bolton-based gym.

“He was always called out by people in his weight division from this country or a world champion from here, Junior Witter for example, but Ricky was chasing the big names, the likes of Mayweather and Pacquiao.  Ricky never took a backwards step.  I’m in that same position.

“Those fights might be there for me one day, but I’m within touching distance of a Mayweather, Pacquiao or Tim Bradley fight.  Why should I come back to fight someone who is not at that level?  I want to carry on in America for a bit longer, get those marquee names and then come back home.”

The 29-year-old missed out on his three main targets only to get a big name at a higher weight.  It is a huge gamble, he will have to put on 8lbs to reach the 155lbs limit yet will be rewarded to the tune of roughly $8,000,000.  Sure, Carl Froch earned the same in pounds at Wembley when fighting as the A-side, Groves picked up a lot less due to IBF purse split regulations and as stated above that was a one-off.

If Alvarez-Khan ended in a similar way to Froch-Groves I then a rematch would net Khan a whole lot more money.  It isn’t always about crowd sizes, Wembley and British PPV, which costs fans a lot less than a U.S. PPV and does not have the same revenue potential.

At the time, Froch was number two in his division and probably in the same position in the terms of crossover appeal, with Khan at number one.  It was a very competitive rematch with nationwide coverage.

When Mayweather rematched Rene Marcos Maidana he netted $32,000,000 for a fight that did not perform as well as expected in terms of PPVs (Forbes).  Nor did it take place in Wembley stadium.  Consider also that Floyd drew in over a million PPVs for his fight with Mexican Legend Manuel “The” Marquez, earning $25,000,000 for a bout that was as competitive as Babe Ruth versus a glass piñata.

To put it into perspective, Forbes estimated the overall revenue from Froch-Groves at around £23,000,000 (6 million on tickets, 17 from PPV), The Daily Mail predicted it had hit the £22,000,000 mark.  Fans may again argue that using Mayweather as a comparison is misleading, I would counter by again asking why Floyd did not come over here when at the peak of his earning powers to earn some real money.  That one answers itself, though.

You could say that the comparison is harsh on Froch, both “The Cobra” and Mayweather are massive international sporting superstars yet “Money” is the sport’s chief draw, or was, so it shows that there is a vast difference in earning potential between the U.S. and the U.K.  Do movie executives say: “I don’t care about the North American box office takings, it is all about what we get from the British market?”  Why do British bands desperately try to make it in the U.S.?

The long and short of it is that Alvarez-Khan is by no means a duck and is a bigger fight than Brook-Khan in all but one aspect.  That one aspect is that British fans love a derby and have a crowd mentality, they see bigger gatherings and assume you can earn more money over here.

As for Brook-Khan, it will happen eventually.  Sadly, both men will have probably lost at least one fight each by the time it does.  That’s boxing for you.

Coda:

We are approaching the 20th anniversary of the summer 1997 release of the Wu Tang Clan’s Wu-Tang Forever (sorry if that makes you feel old).

The album hit the top of both the U.S. and U.K. charts.  Billboard reported that it had sold 612,000 units when going to the top of the U.S. charts.

Here in the U.K., the album knocked The Prodigy off the top spot by selling 26,000 copies (Billboard, 21 June 1997).  Which royalty cheque do you think the Tang looked forward to the most?

In boxing, it is all about the ‘0’.  In monetary terms it is all about cracking America, and probably always will be.

Please send news and views to @Terryboxing.