Boxing is thriving right now? With Golovkin doing 150k ppvs and #1 and #2 p4p fighters getting a whole 160k buys? That is thriving??? No, it really isn't. hbo is practically out of boxing, they will pay for a few fights a year and that's it. Boxing is far from thriving. The only fighter who brings fans and the $$$ that comes with them is Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Yes, imagine if a 65-0 Duran fought an opponent with a record of 0-1 today. And obviously Mayweather was already very well known before ODLH, otherwise how do you explain how that crushed every other ppv in history until May-Pac? ODLH got about 900k ppvs, but got triple that with Floyd.
You can think watching Lomachenko fight nobodies on espn and the #1 and #2 p4p fighters fighting each other for 160k buys is thriving, but Sugar Ray Leonard got just as many ppvs fighting Hagler three decades earlier. What a joke, boxing is relegated to "other" on sport sites such as espn, and is never mentioned by mainstream media, unless it is Floyd Mayweather. I like boxing now as much as ever, and Haymon has been making great fights and many on free tv. But come on, this is a joke. Boxing is dead. Go ask people to name two fighters not named Floyd Mayweather and see how many can pass the test. I would guess less than 1% of the population can. That might be thriving in your world, but in reality it is just sad.Mayweather was well known before DeLaHoya? Is that why his first 3 PPV's did less than a million buys all together? Is that why Mayweather fights against Ortiz and Guerrero did only 1 million and his fight with Canelo did 2.3 million buys yet both his fights with Maidana did less than 2 million and Berto did 500k? People are stupid and easily duped, I don't blame floyd for taking advantage of stupid people and from what I see at boxing events the sport is still thriving. real boxing people are pumped for Canelo vs GGG and just because stupid people are falling for this circus doesn't make it a good event.