By Jake Donovan
 
Ugh.

It’s the automatic reaction anytime any show not featuring a superstar-level main event goes the pay-per-view route. The collective groans are often for good reason, as it’s far too often when promoters chase a quick buck rather than truly giving fight fans their money’s worth.

On the surface, it’s nearly impossible to justify the $44.95 price tag that comes with this weekend’s offering, a split-site independent pay-per-view, featuring Miguel Cotto and Kelly Pavlik in separate main events in separate locations.

Cotto will take on Michael Jennings in a welterweight bout that captures top billing at Madison Square Garden, before the broadcast – in the words of event promoter Bob Arum – “magically shifts over” to Youngstown, Ohio, where favorite son Kelly Pavlik puts his lineal middleweight crown on the line against Marco Antonio Rubio.

Both fighters are coming off of their first career loss, and both in devastating fashion. Neither will be facing a foe that threatens to make it two straight losses. Once you get past the perceived mismatched co-main events, the rest of the card runs extremely thin, especially in the wake of Anthony Peterson suffering an injury, scrapping his lightweight fight with Edner Cherry.

So why should we care about this event, again?

Because of the effort being put into it by a single entity.

This isn’t your garden variety, play-with-house-money pay-per-screw, where the promoter collects his booking fee from the network willing to fund the event, and the fans are left out to dry. Every nickel of this split site event is coming out of Arum’s pocket, for the sake of keeping two of his stars busy while positioning them for bigger things to come later in the year.

It wasn’t always the plan, though Arum had spent the last several months flirting with the idea of Pavlik headlining an independent pay-per-view in an optional title defense.

Such a fight was supposed to come last September, the reason why Top Rank separate events 120 miles apart on the same June weekend. One night before Pavlik bludgeoned Gary Lockett in Atlantic City live on HBO, Rubio scored his eighth straight win in forcing Freddy Cuevas to retire on his stool after five rounds in their Telefutura-televised main event in Reading, Penn.

At the time, a Pavlik-Rubio meet was the alternative if a more lucrative payday couldn’t be secured for Pavlik – namely a potential showdown with Joe Calzaghe. It was the fight that HBO most desired, hence their willingness to allow for Lockett, Calzaghe’s stable mate, to grace their airwaves.

That superfight never happened, only Pavlik was no longer interested in accepting less than his minimum guarantee for a Rubio fight, even if in or near his hometown. He instead added ten pounds for a far more lucrative match with Bernard Hopkins.

The rest is history, including what used to be his unblemished record. One more lesson learned the hard way, as Pavlik took the scenic route in order to wind up with the same fight he could’ve had last fall, with the difference being that he’d have begun 2009 still undefeated.

It was a double whammy for Arum, who also failed to convince the HBO brass to open up their pockets for a Pavlik-Rubio fight in the first quarter of 2009. Rubio’s appearance beneath Hopkins-Pavlik, defeating Enrique Ornelas in a spirited middleweight title eliminator, offered the suggestion of an audition to convince the network that he was ready for prime time.

Apparently, HBO wasn’t entertained, rejecting the proposed match up a second time. With no other interest – financial or otherwise – coming from any other network, Arum had a decision to make: put Pavlik on ice until a better fight came along; or open up his wallet in order to get his fighter back in the ring.

Nearly every other promoter in the game would’ve opted for the first choice, along with wearing out their kneepads in begging for network handouts than to do any actual promoting.

Such has never been Arum’s way, though certainly not averse to securing output deals with any given network (past deals with ESPN, Telefutura, Versus and a present one with TV Azteca, to cite a few examples). When the networks say no, Arum finds other ways to keep his kids busy. He’s done it with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, using his popularity to showcase other fighters in his stable

Play the game; don’t let the game play you.

With the goal of having Pavlik fight no fewer than three times in 2009, a February starting point was an absolute must. The next step was finding a worthwhile fight – or at least fighter – to pair up in order to make the pay-per-view more intriguing.

Enter Miguel Cotto.

Like Pavlik-Rubio and in fact to a greater degree, Cotto’s upcoming welterweight meet with Michael Jennings is less about a competitive match as it is about a promoter getting his fighter’s career back on track.

Arum had the vision of a split-site event the moment Cotto opted to sit out the remainder of 2008 following the summer setback against Margarito. There were still hopes of network coverage – while Pavlik-Rubio on its own wasn’t enticing enough, perhaps a Pavlik/Cotto doubleheader would carry enough appeal to change their minds.

Still no takers, but still no problem as Arum simply proceeded with his contingency plan.

It helps that both fighters are regional draws – Cotto can pull a crowd in New York and his native Puerto Rico, while Pavlik is nothing short of a God-send in Youngstown, and on his way to become the favorite son on the Atlantic City strip.

From a fan’s perspective, an ideal show would have Cotto and Pavlik on the same card. From a promoter’s perspective, two fighters that can put asses in the seats in separate arenas mean more reasonable pay-per-view expectations. The Chevrolet Center has been sold out for weeks, while Arum anticipates Cotto’s Garden party to pull in anywhere from 10,000-12,000. 

A generous estimate places 19,000 paying fans that don’t seem to mind the fighters listed on the B-side of the promotion. The chance to see their longtime favorites is well worth the price of admission.

Translation: a promoter bringing the fights – or in this case, fighters – to the people.

The split-side broadcast means a livelier atmosphere throughout the evening, rather than two or three preliminary bouts fought in front of an empty casino arena, as has become the case with the majority of pay-per-view shows in recent years. By the time Cotto enters the ring, the crowd will be primed and ready to roar, only for the same sequence to occur once the broadcast flips over to Pavlik’s hometown.

While the matchups as a whole leave something to be desired in the way of competitive action, none figure to disappoint from an entertainment standpoint. Included in the broadcast is 2008 Russian Olympian and former two-time world amateur champion Matvey Korobev, as well as a guaranteed all-action clash between Matt Vanda and undefeated middleweight contender John Duddy. It goes without saying that Cotto and Pavlik are incapable of delivering stinkers; the question isn’t whether or not they will entertain, but how long their respective bouts will last.

Considering all of the elements, there are two ways to look at the innovative show taking place this weekend.

Those already planning to attend or order know what they are paying for, and therefore should ultimately get their money’s worth.

For those more selective in how they invest in the sport, it’s certainly your right to pass on the night’s offering, but appreciate the effort put forth by the promoter when all other options were exhausted.
 
Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .