By Cliff Rold
This weekend, we get the latest installment of what are now annual major pay boxing shows on Mexican holiday dates. Cinco De Mayo and Mexican Independence Day weekends are, for boxing fans, dates circled on the calendar.
Well before one even knows what they’ll be watching, there is an expectation of a fight. In particular, a pay-per-view fight. The main events don’t even necessarily have to feature a Mexican or Mexican American star. Floyd Mayweather’s use of the dates showed that the dates are now just part of the bigger boxing fan culture.
This is nothing new. There have always been times or dates that lend themselves to the boxing calendar. In the old days, there was typically a big fight right around the All-Star break in major league baseball at one of the available stadiums (often in New York). The now valued September date comes early enough in the college football season that the right matches don’t get overwhelmed by the gridiron and can still turn a profit.
Last September, fans didn’t get the right match. Mayweather-Andre Berto, according to most reports, underperformed every Mayweather pay-per-view since his return from initial retirement in 2009. Do we have the right match this weekend?
Many fans would say no. A combination of Gennady Golovkin fans, skeptical hardcore fans, and boxing writers have a hard time getting excited about lineal middleweight champion Saul Alvarez’s return to the Jr. middleweight class. He’s chasing a title there, the WBO belt of Liam Smith, but hardcore boxing heads might label this fight ‘not worthy of pay-per-view.’
That’s not to mention they would also likely note they don’t want this fight at all. There is a loud Golovkin or bust contingent leading the way there. It’s not dissimilar sentiments expressed while paying millions to Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather for not fighting each other for five years.
So far, it appears deemed worthy of solid fan interest in Texas. While they won’t sell out the home of the Dallas Cowboys this weekend, it’s likely this will be the most attended card of the year in the US. That doesn’t necessarily make it worthy of extra coin for those tuning in from their couch but in a year where HBO’s boxing budget has been a cause for consternation, the price tag for all things “Canelo” was going to make this a pay show no matter what.
So here is the choice: pay now or watch for a subscription fee one week later when HBO replays the fight.
There is nothing wrong with that choice.
It is, whether some see it that way or not, the upside of pay-per-view.
When HBO, Showtime, or any other network that is part of one’s cable package (premium or basic) elects to air a mismatch, they’re eating into the investment a fight fan has already made. Most of boxing, barring a relative handful of PBC network cards, is part of the cable landscape. For a boxing fan, it’s a strong reason not to go cordless on all viewing habits.
Live boxing just isn’t online enough to outweigh the volume of product cable allows.
Nothing on cable is free.
Your monthly bill portions out more for some basic channels than others. It has set fees for premium networks. It’s all on a bill. When HBO or Showtime use the budget funds collected from subscribers, and air mismatches or fights that fans don’t find appealing, all the griping makes more sense. The customer has a proven expenditure point and no real outlet to express their disdain. Most fans aren’t Nielsen ratings participants so they aren’t really swaying ratings if they don’t watch. The best they can do is cancel a premium channel but there is no real mechanism to make clear that the cancellation is boxing related.
That’s frustrating. The customer can’t always be right if the customer can’t get their voice heard in a clear way.
To these eyes and ears, complaining about undesirable pay per view shows makes less sense. “I don’t want to pay for that,” should be all that matters. It’s not a forced payment. There is a choice.
Now, sure, it could be argued that subscribers should be getting stars like Alvarez without an extra price tag attached. That ship sailed well over a generation ago. Certain fighters hit a point where their value exceeds what networks have available to spend directly. For something like Alvarez-Smith, that’s great. If it’s the mismatch many think it will turn out to be, at least it didn’t eat into already stretched finite resources.
The same will be true later this year as Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto go to scratch in contests that will have some of the same complaints as this weekend. The only pay-per-view fight that fans and pundits agree is ‘worthy’ is the battle between Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward. That’s a fantastic match.
It would be a surprise if it were the best seller of the coming pay crop.
There is the argument that, when all the biggest stars are on pay-per-view, the sport doesn’t grow. It has some validity but it’s overstated.
The bottom line is that there aren’t that many genuine stars taking up pay-per-view space. The sport has plenty of other fighters. Their matchmaking should be what matters. Last weekend, we saw some excellent stuff at lightweight (Robert Easter-Richard Commey) and Jr. bantamweight (Roman Gonzalez-Carlos Cuadras). Add to those fights gems like Keith Thurman-Shawn Porter (which did monster viewing numbers relative to the sport), Leo Santa Cruz-Carl Frampton, and Francisco Vargas-Orlando Salido.
If boxing fans want the sport to grow, there are plenty of fights available to point out for those who can be converted to the charms of the sweet science. Anyone who watches one of those fights and is bummed they didn’t get to see Canelo Alvarez probably isn’t going to be the sort of viewer who grows the sport anyways.
This weekend, the worthiness of the pay-per-view price tag is entirely in the hands of each viewer. It is power held, literally, in the hand of the consumer.
It’s hard to find a downside in that.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
