By Jake Donovan
The news that Floyd Mayweather Jr. was once again returning to the ring was just the beginning of the good news that would accompany the “Star Power” press tour.
Not only was one of the two biggest – if not only true – stars returning to the sport, but doing so against newly crowned welterweight titlist Victor Ortiz, a fighter ten years his junior who is in his prime and coming off of the biggest win of his young career.
Even better news – the pay-per-view headliner would come with a star-studded supporting cast, including undefeated rising star Saul Alvarez and the legendary (albeit faded) Erik Morales in separate televised bouts. Rounding out the telecast is a solid junior welterweight scrap between Jessie Vargas and Josesito Lopez, a bout that carries possible future title fight implications.
Given what the sport normally offers in the way of pay-per-view events, this one carried the rare scent of giving fans their money’s worth.
That was until it was revealed that this will be the most expensive boxing pay-per-view event ever.
The announcement that “Star Power” comes with a $59.95 price tag ($10 more for those who still charge extra for HD) was offered in a casual manner as if it were commonplace.
Suddenly, the selling points of the event were put under a microscope.
Alvarez is facing Alfonso Gomez in a junior middleweight bout that few if any predict to be very competitive. In fact, some oddsmakers have the 21-year old Mexican as heavy as a 22-1 favorite to win what is being billed as a split site co-main event.
As he has been led to believe that he is above being referred to as anyone’s co-feature attraction, Alvarez headlines a card at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Everyone else involved in the show – including the heart of the media coverage - will be situated at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for the evening’s true headliner and its supporting cast.
Morales’ appearance comes at the heavy price of compromising what’s left of the sport’s integrity. He is now looking at his third mentioned opponent in Pablo Cano, who accepts assignment on short notice after Lucas Matthysse was forced to withdraw after suffering an untimely illness last week. Matthysse was a replacement – and a massive upgrade at that – for Jorge Barrios, the originally suggested opponent for this pay-per-view slot.
The aforementioned integrity hit comes with what’s at stake in this fight – an alphabet belt, which if won by Morales would make him the first ever in the history of Mexican-born prizefighters to capture a “world” title in four separate weight classes.
Those who weren’t completely disgusted by such a thought were willing to look the other way when he was still facing Matthysse. What came with the fight wasn’t nearly as important as the fight itself, which promised to be an all-out war (does Morales know any other way, especially these days?) for however long it lasted, and quite possibly steal the show in terms of pure action.
While it’s still not out of the question for Morales to leave the arena abuzz by the final bell, the sex appeal of his placement on the card took a hit the moment it was announced that he’d be facing Cano, a 21-year young Mexican who carries an undefeated record but appears every bit as green as the very belt at stake in the fight. His lone step up in competition came last summer, when he barely squeaked by journeyman Oscar Leon in their Telefutura-televised headliner.
Then of course, there’s the headliner itself.
On its own, Mayweather challenging for Ortiz’ recently acquired welterweight belt – which at one time belonged to Mayweather before his first hiatus from the ring more than three years ago – is a formidable event, especially when you factor in the part about it being his first fight in 16 months.
A year or so ago, the fight would’ve been laughed at and Mayweather would’ve been accused of cherry picking, although that seems to be the case no matter whom he’s faced over the past decade or so. Then again, the fight wasn’t on anyone’s radar a year ago.
The problem in trying to justify the exorbitant price tag that comes with this event is that it still wasn’t on anyone’s radar this year. That was until Mayweather was spotted ringside at Foxwoods Casino for Ortiz’ showdown with Andre Berto earlier this year.
By his own admission, the fight itself or possibly facing its winner wasn’t even on Mayweather’s mind. The longtime undefeated pound-for-pound fixture claimed he was on his way to see close friend 50 Cent, whose East Coast crib was close enough to the venue to where they decided to make the road trip and take in a night at the fights.
The upset win by Ortiz opened up a world of possibilities for Mayweather, since a Berto victory wouldn’t have produced the event that headlines the boxing world this weekend.
It’s not because Berto isn’t a formidable enough B-side for such an occasion – quite the contrary, as he was in the running for a showdown with Manny Pacquiao earlier this year before the slot disappointingly went to a faded Shane Mosley. However, the fact that Mayweather and Berto share the same advisor – Al Haymon – meant the two would most likely never face.
All of that became moot when Ortiz – 22 months removed from pulling a quit job against Marcos Maidana – twice climbed off the canvas to score two knockdowns of his own en route to a well-earned points win in one of the year’s best fights.
The win itself and the manner in which it was achieved were well noted in selling Ortiz’ credentials for earning a fight of this magnitude. Make no mistake, he has earned it.
The problem? It’s not Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao.
By that standard, any fight that either takes will be viewed as a letdown.
When Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson finally faced one another in 2002 – a good five or six years past its greatest chance for a more competitive fight – it was hardly a surprise when the powers that be decided that this event would come with a $55 pay-per-view price tag.
You didn’t get much of an undercard – two fights rather than the once-traditional three supporting bouts, and neither of them very competitive on paper or in reality. At best, from a reflective standpoint you can say that you saw Lewis, Tyson and Pacquiao on the same card as the then-rising Filipino appeared against a badly faded Jorge Julio (the other televised bout was Joel Casamayor in a walkover against Juan Arias).
But all that mattered was that the main event featured perhaps the last remaining heavyweight matchup that fans demanded before the spot was ready to usher in the next era of boxing’s big boys.
For that reason and that reason only, the spiked price tag was justified (relatively speaking, of course).
From that point onward, several more boxing pay-per-views came with the $55 price. Most of them featured Oscar de la Hoya, including his failed lineal middleweight challenge versus Bernard Hopkins, his comeback bout against Ricardo Mayorga and of course his losses to Mayweather and Pacquiao, both of whom are now offered as $55 fighters.
The issue in doing so is that their events – while widely anticipated – are not featuring fights the sport demands, nor have they been accompanied by the type of supporting cast to make fans feel as if they are receiving their money’s worth. The biggest reason for such a feeling is because their fights aren’t against one another.
Even if they take on tough challenges – and it’s up to debate whether any of the fights either has accepted since there has existed the opportunity to face each other – it will still fall short of the interest and revenue that can be generated from a head-on collision.
That Mayweather is taking on a talented, hard-hitting left-handed fighter for his first fight back in more than a year has fueled speculation that perhaps the dream event has taken a legitimate step forward towards becoming a reality.
What was an unexpected reality was the premium rate for a pay-per-view show being jacked higher before that very event takes place, if ever at all. Given the state of the economy and the fact that as long as that fight remains on the table that fans aren’t truly being given what they demand, there’s little to no excuse for this event setting a new standard for the going rate of a major boxing event.
None of that is to suggest that this weekend’s action doesn’t belong in the medium it has been placed. As long as Mayweather and Pacquiao remain the only two stars in the sport who can demand mainstream attention anytime they step foot in the ring, it can be expected that their events will be packaged on a level far separate from the rest of the industry.
The concern now, however, is just how high that bar will be set if and when they ever agree to face each other, and how much more will they squeeze out of the public before getting to that point.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/JakeNDaBox or submit questions/comments to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .