BJ Flores: Fans Not Opening Up Wallets For Mayweather

by Edward Chaykovsky

Cruiserweight contender and NBC Sports expert analyst BJ Flores believes more and more fans are starting to tighten up their wallets when it comes to purchasing Floyd Mayweather's pay-per-view events. While he says Mayweather has certainly earned the right to pick and choose his opponents, the fans are losing interest in watching fights where the action is lacking and Mayweather dominates the majority of the rounds.

There are industry rumors that Mayweather's last few pay-per-view events underperformed and the buyrate numbers being circulated are inflated. The obvious exception is the 2.2 million purchases for last September fight with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.

Tougher opposition will be necessary to increase the buyrate figures, says Flores.

"I heard the numbers for the last fight [rematch with Marcos Maidana] wasn’t like 900,000 or 800,000, it was 772,000 [pay-per-view] buys. That’s quite a few under a million, that’s three quarters of a million, not a million. The buys are going down, the people are starting to recognize that and the style of fighting as far as not being entertaining. People aren’t wanting to pay $65 of their hard earned money on a fight that every time they get in a clinch he’s just gonna grab him," Flores told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.

"With saying all that, I still think Floyd is a great amazing fighter, he’s the best ticket seller in the show but I think the game of boxing is always evolving, it’s always changing and right now that’s the change we’re starting to see, that Floyd just can’t fight whoever he wants and sell a million anymore like he used to."