By Robert Morales
Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, said this week that if Floyd Mayweather Jr. were to come out of retirement, he could take over the title as pay-per-view champion that was vacated when Oscar De La Hoya recently retired.
Mayweather, of course, is presumably in negotiations to fight Golden Boy fighter Juan Manuel Marquez. Even if that does not materialize, there doesn't seem to be much doubt Mayweather will fight again. Of course, if he only comes out of retirement for a fight or two, he will never be able to come close to doing what De La Hoya did. We're talking 14.1 million pay-per-view buys that generated $696 million in revenue.
"If Floyd Mayweather Jr. will come back, with his personality outside the ring with Dancing With The Stars and the other things he has done - he has the AT&T commercial - if he could come back, it could be his time," Schaefer said.
Mayweather, 32, has not fought since stopping Ricky Hatton in the 10th round in December 2007 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Mum's The Word
Speaking of Mayweather-Marquez, Schaefer on Wednesday refused to get into any specifics regarding their proposed fight.
"I'm not going to comment on that," Schaefer said. "I don't think it would be fair if I'm going to discuss anything that would happen there. I don't think it would be fair to Ricky Hatton or Manny Pacquiao, who have worked very hard on this fight."
In other words, Schaefer doesn't want to take away any of the hoopla from Hatton-Pacquiao by talking about another big fight.
"I'm not going to give any comments until this fight is done," said Schaefer, who, along with De La Hoya promotes Marquez. "It wouldn't be the right thing for (Pacquiao promoter) Bob Arum, either. I can tell you one thing, nothing is done."
Pacquiao Fever Running Wild
Faham Zakariaei has been special events manager for the San Francisco Giants for five years. But he said Wednesday that he has never seen anything like what transpired on Filipino Heritage Night on April 21 at AT&T Park.
"No," Zakariaei said. "And we host probably one of the most extensive lineups as far as heritage nights at the ballpark. We have really grown that program."
Last year the Giants were the first team in Major League Baseball to host a Filipino Heritage Night.
"We sold 5,000 tickets right off the bat," Zakariaei said.
The Giants ended up having two such Filipino Heritage nights last season. But Zakariaei knew they could be better.
"What can we to do really enhance that event for the fans?" Zakaraei said he asked himself. "As far as for the Filipino fans, it was a no-brainer. Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino icon.
"When we agreed to do it, it was like a new concept, a new way to promote. We knew a lot of people would come out. We knew the connection he has with the Filipino people, and vice-versa. People really flock to him big-time. I had seen myself the way people mob him."
Zakariaei said that nearly 11,000 Filipino Americans purchased tickets to the April 21 event. Interestingly, he said that everyone at the park embraced Pacquiao - who Saturday will fight Ricky Hatton at MGM Grand in Las Vegas - which could be a sign that Pacquiao is beginning to cross over the way Oscar De La Hoya did.
"Escorting him through all that madness, I noticed that many of the people who were there were not your typical Filipino Americans," Zakariaei said.
And when Pacquiao went to throw out the first pitch, all heck broke loose.
"When he was actually walking toward the mound, the entire stadium really received him well," Zakariaei said. "It wasn't just the 10,000 people there who bought tickets for the event."
Zakariaei said that many on his staff spoke to people in the stands about their feelings toward Pacquiao. And not just Filipinos.
"My whole staff said the same thing, which was on my mind as well," Zakariaei said. "Was there going to be other people as well? And it really ended up being one of those things."
Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, suggested it was a telling moment, one that showed Pacquiao is more than just a Filipino icon.
"Absolutely," Arum said. "I noticed that it wasn't solely Filipinos, that it was also Anglos and Hispanics."
The topper was when Pacquiao got to meet Giants great Willie Mays.
"We took Manny, Bob Arum and (trainer) Freddie Roach into the Giants clubhouse to say hello to some of the players and Willie happened to be there," Zakariaei said. "It was quite a moment."
Getting in Hatton's Head
Schaefer was asked this week about the pressure Hatton is under to perform better against Pacquiao on Saturday than he did against Mayweather.
Hatton has tried to downplay the idea that there is a heavy burden on his shoulders not to lose in one-sided fashion like he did to Mayweather. He has correctly pointed out that everyone who has fought Mayweather has lost and that there is no shame in what transpired that night in Las Vegas.
Schaefer, however, said that Hatton is under a lot of pressure. But more so because of his own feelings. Sure, Hatton loves his British followers and wants to do well for them, but Schaefer said that the thousands and thousands of Brits who will be in Las Vegas this weekend is proof that fans are more forgiving than the fighters themselves.
"For every fighter, when you get your first loss it is more than just a loss," Schaefer said. "It really is. They (Team Hatton) felt they were invincible and suddenly that is gone. I think that first loss does to a fighter much more than any subsequent loss.
"I saw that with Oscar when he lost to Felix Trinidad, even though he didn't really lose. When he lost to (Shane) Mosley and to (Bernard) Hopkins, it was not a nice experience. But the first loss is more than a loss. It really is a major setback for the fighter more so than it is for the fans."
Schaefer suggested that Hatton has realized his foremost goals of becoming a world champion as well as financial stability. Now he wants the rest.
"I think when you are a young kid and you decide to go into boxing you begin training and your dream is to become a world champion and Ricky has already fulfilled those dreams,"Schaefer said. "And you try to make as much money as you can.
"The Mayweather fight was a devastating loss, a knockout, but he made a substantial amount of money. As a result he is now set for life. Now when you fast-forward to this fight here, every fighter wants to win and I think that is the most important thing, to win. It means more to the fighters; the money becomes secondary."
Pay-Per-View Sans Oscar
Larry Merchant, the longtime HBO analyst, was reached via telephone from his home in Santa Monica, Calif., on Wednesday, a day before he would leave for Las Vegas and the Pacquiao-Hatton fight.
We asked Merchant his thoughts on what he believes is going to transpire with pay-per-view now that Oscar De La Hoya, the record-setter in every pay-per-view category, has retired.
Merchant touched on that, all right, then he tackled another related subject that has him somewhat baffled. Merchant was initially asked what Pacquiao needs to do to realize his full pay-per-view potential.
"I think he is realizing it now," Merchant said. "Whether it has a higher crest remains to be seen. Maybe if he were to fight Mayweather, it would undoubtedly be higher since you would have an American fighter involved. There has never been a non-American fighter who has drawn like this guy is, and is about to."
In seven HBO pay-per-fights, Pacquiao has sold 3,250,000 buys that have generated roughly $160 million in revenue, according to industry sources. During a much longer pay-per-view career, De La Hoya sold a mind-boggling 14.1 million buys equating to $696 million.
"And it's still being decided," Merchant said of Pacquiao's pay-per-view prowess, "and this is one of the things that will come out of this fight, just how much globalization has taken over boxing and whether you can consistently have fights between non-Americans and have it build to this crescendo.
"One of the interesting things here is that everybody measures what De La Hoya did, but he's a phenomenon that is not liable to be repeated any time soon."
Speaking of globalization in boxing, Merchant can't understand why nobody seems to be talking about what is happening outside of the U.S. in our sport. With all the hoopla about boxing hurting or dying or whatever in America, Merchant pointed out that the sport is more than alive and well in other necks of the woods.
"Hatton had 1.4 million pay-per-view buys (on a British television feed) at four o'clock in the morning when he fought Mayweather, which is one of the more astonishing numbers I've heard, and yet nobody seems to add that to the total," Merchant said. "The fight drew about 900,000 (buys) in the U.S. and 1.4 million in Britain. But nobody seems to put those two numbers together."
Merchant noted that there have been several big outdoor events in Britain that have drawn incredible amounts of people to the stadiums. For example, Hatton fought Juan Lazcano in front of 58,000 at City of Manchester Stadium last May.
"And we're going to see maybe 60,000 for the Wladimir Klitschko-David Haye (heavyweight title) fight (on June 20 at Veltins Arena in Germany)," Merchant said, "and nobody seems to remark on that as far as boxing in general."
On Hatton
Merchant said that although Hatton has one very big victory over Kostya Tszyu and some others over good fighters, it is imperative he make a good showing Saturday against Pacquiao, "so that everybody nods and says, 'This guy is a hell of a good fighter.' You don't have to win them all, but you gotta fight them all and you gotta show you can.
"Oscar didn't win all the big fights, but he fought them all and he battled in almost all of them. In the losses, he was good."
This was in reference to Hatton losing in such one-sided fashion to Mayweather Jr. Since that was Hatton's other super fight in Las Vegas, Merchant believes Hatton needs to improve upon that showing if he wants to leave an indelible mark in the minds of fans.
"It's a pretty good idea if he wants to lay down a marker, if he wants to go down as one of the fighters who was the best during his time," Merchant said. "At the end of the day, losing to two of the best fighters (meaning Mayweather and Pacquiao) is nothing to be ashamed of, but I think he has got to be able to be in the fight."
Robert Morales covers boxing for the Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, and BoxingScene.com
