Showtime may lose big on Mayweather Gamble

This past week NY Daily News sunday edition had a Bob Raisman article which he compared the Mayweather deal to the Tyson debacle Showtime suffered years ago. Showtime lost millions on a multi-fight deal toward the end of Tyson's career. Initially Showtime did well with Tyson when he fought Holyfield twice; actually setting a PPV record until broken by Mayweather-DLH. However, by the time Tyson lost to Mcbride the network was on the red in terms of Tyson. This brings us to the six fight Mayweather deal. It is a risky gamble as Mayweather is in the final stretch of his career. Are there six major opponents out there for Mayweather? Yes, but how likely is that he will face some of these big names? We can pretty much eliminate S. Martinez and Pac(even if he beats Marquez, Mayweather won't deal with Arum). The fact that Mayweather won't sign a conditional stipulation essentially mandating a fight with Canelo, may mean that Showtime has limited veto power in choosing Mayweather opponents. If Showtime did have veto power they likely would have mandated a match with Canelo. It is possible that Mayweather may end up fighting Alvarez anyway. The only fighters penciled in for the May 4 undercard are Andres Gutierrez and Hasim Rahman Jr, not exactly a promising card for fans. IMHO this is looking more like a regular showtime bout than a PPV event. Only time will tell if Showtime's gamble pays off. CBS with their major money will obviously help, but it may be too late.