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Bad karma in Texas: They should have made the trip
December 10, 1:49 AM
Dallas Boxing Examiner
Matt Stolow
Not going to visit the Cowboys Stadium at the last minute might have been in the best interests of Richard Schaefer and Golden Boy Promotions but certainly not its client Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
How can Floyd make more money with fewer seats and less promotion from HBO?
Big mistake Floyd. Oh he'll make his $30 million or so and maybe even win the fight.
But by staying in Las Vegas, Golden Boy Promotions and this fight is tainted. I guess GBP keeps all its Las Vegas casino connections very happy including their favored scalpers who pay huge premiums resulting in millions of dollars for tickets the public could only dream of, let alone could buy.
Hey, everyone in the sport is working side deals. But to jeopardize a multi-million dollar promotion over peanuts should be a crime of commerce. And it's so obvious. If this is the case and you're guilty, fess up and let's move on. We'll call it a misunderstanding.
It's a corporate sellout of its client (Floyd Mayweather) and everyone involved. I doubt Floyd gets a cut of that money.
When people say something like "(Something) is good for boxing," I laugh. Boxing was the No. 2 sport in America after World War II. Behind only baseball. If anyone really knew what was good for boxing it would have been done by now.
Boxing has always been a sport on the cutting edge of technology. No sport has benefited from closed-circuit and later pay-per-view as boxing has. But today it officially needs a new drug.
But today boxing needs more fans. Younger fans. And it needs younger fighters and more trainers.
Now the demographics of boxing in America are, well, me. Mid 40s, fat, journeyman white guy who watched Muhammad Ali fight free on a black and white Zenith with my dad in the early 1970s. We keep hoping yesterday is going to come back. But we know it isn't.
So when a state of the art, $1.2 billion, biggest domed stadium in the world with 100,000 seats, 3,000 panel TVs, a mailing list for its 80,000 season ticket holders at our disposal, and the two biggest screens in the world that each go 60 yards in length (between the 20 yard lines) whether in Texas or Pennsylvania, is offered to us, we say "No." We blow it off the night before.
And the media and members of the general public embrace the decision to blow it off and disrespect a prospective billionaire investor and make Bob Arum and HBO look like fools who can't control an otherwise absentee co-promoter.
And the next battle cry during the next 90 days will be that pay-per-view is too expensive. Well of course it's going to be. The fans have no leverage now. Nobody is negotiating for them. Once the cable systems have you comfortably above $65 or so and the additional $10 for HD and taxes and fees even the little PPV shows inches upward as does the monthly HBO fee.
Because we don't like change, or anything different to upset our memory or fantasy. It takes us out of our comfort zone. We don't want to lose what we have. Even though it is fleeting. We would rather pander instead.
We say "No." We don't want an extra 80,000 casual fans to experience the excitement of a major, maybe once in a lifetime live fight at a reasonable price. We don't want new fans from pay-per-view or possibly motivate some young boy who may just be the next Floyd Mayweather, Jr. or Manny Pacquiao from strolling in a gym someday. This must not be good for boxing.
The younger folks are into Ultimate Fighting Championships. I can't blame them. They're not into boxing and I'm afraid that while boxing will exist in some form 10 or 15 years from now, it will be a very sad state of affairs.
We may bilk several more huge boxing shows in the next few years, but the future is set and boxing is going to die a horrible death some day.
Golden Gloves participation in America has been plummeting for the past two decades so the number of potential fighters in the gene pool is so small and finding dedicated people to train them for little or no money is even smaller.
So instead of thinking you know what is good for boxing, you should really be ashamed of yourselves because your arrogance and greed have virtually killed the sport.
December 10, 1:49 AM
Dallas Boxing Examiner
Matt Stolow
Not going to visit the Cowboys Stadium at the last minute might have been in the best interests of Richard Schaefer and Golden Boy Promotions but certainly not its client Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
How can Floyd make more money with fewer seats and less promotion from HBO?
Big mistake Floyd. Oh he'll make his $30 million or so and maybe even win the fight.
But by staying in Las Vegas, Golden Boy Promotions and this fight is tainted. I guess GBP keeps all its Las Vegas casino connections very happy including their favored scalpers who pay huge premiums resulting in millions of dollars for tickets the public could only dream of, let alone could buy.
Hey, everyone in the sport is working side deals. But to jeopardize a multi-million dollar promotion over peanuts should be a crime of commerce. And it's so obvious. If this is the case and you're guilty, fess up and let's move on. We'll call it a misunderstanding.
It's a corporate sellout of its client (Floyd Mayweather) and everyone involved. I doubt Floyd gets a cut of that money.
When people say something like "(Something) is good for boxing," I laugh. Boxing was the No. 2 sport in America after World War II. Behind only baseball. If anyone really knew what was good for boxing it would have been done by now.
Boxing has always been a sport on the cutting edge of technology. No sport has benefited from closed-circuit and later pay-per-view as boxing has. But today it officially needs a new drug.
But today boxing needs more fans. Younger fans. And it needs younger fighters and more trainers.
Now the demographics of boxing in America are, well, me. Mid 40s, fat, journeyman white guy who watched Muhammad Ali fight free on a black and white Zenith with my dad in the early 1970s. We keep hoping yesterday is going to come back. But we know it isn't.
So when a state of the art, $1.2 billion, biggest domed stadium in the world with 100,000 seats, 3,000 panel TVs, a mailing list for its 80,000 season ticket holders at our disposal, and the two biggest screens in the world that each go 60 yards in length (between the 20 yard lines) whether in Texas or Pennsylvania, is offered to us, we say "No." We blow it off the night before.
And the media and members of the general public embrace the decision to blow it off and disrespect a prospective billionaire investor and make Bob Arum and HBO look like fools who can't control an otherwise absentee co-promoter.
And the next battle cry during the next 90 days will be that pay-per-view is too expensive. Well of course it's going to be. The fans have no leverage now. Nobody is negotiating for them. Once the cable systems have you comfortably above $65 or so and the additional $10 for HD and taxes and fees even the little PPV shows inches upward as does the monthly HBO fee.
Because we don't like change, or anything different to upset our memory or fantasy. It takes us out of our comfort zone. We don't want to lose what we have. Even though it is fleeting. We would rather pander instead.
We say "No." We don't want an extra 80,000 casual fans to experience the excitement of a major, maybe once in a lifetime live fight at a reasonable price. We don't want new fans from pay-per-view or possibly motivate some young boy who may just be the next Floyd Mayweather, Jr. or Manny Pacquiao from strolling in a gym someday. This must not be good for boxing.
The younger folks are into Ultimate Fighting Championships. I can't blame them. They're not into boxing and I'm afraid that while boxing will exist in some form 10 or 15 years from now, it will be a very sad state of affairs.
We may bilk several more huge boxing shows in the next few years, but the future is set and boxing is going to die a horrible death some day.
Golden Gloves participation in America has been plummeting for the past two decades so the number of potential fighters in the gene pool is so small and finding dedicated people to train them for little or no money is even smaller.
So instead of thinking you know what is good for boxing, you should really be ashamed of yourselves because your arrogance and greed have virtually killed the sport.
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