Cotto/Martinez underperforms, does 350,000 buys

[CubanGuyNYC]

I think the only only fighters to come close to 500k or more is Floyd and Pac since there also well known by the casuals and the only 2 boxers large networks like espn talk about or have segments about.

I tend to agree, but Canelo remains within striking distance of those guys. He was on the cusp of superstardom leading up to the Floyd fight. It's been a long time since I saw a boxer appear in commercials on TV. I saw Alvarez in at least two major commercials around the time of the baseball All-Star Game. I was actually becoming hyped for him and what it meant for the sport. If he had beaten Floyd, Canelo would've blown up like a supernova. It's truly too bad he lost. This sport is ready for new blood. Nonetheless, I think the kid can rebuild and become the new "one."

[FrankieClutch]

Man, Canelo vs Lara will be lucky to pull 250K. Nobody knows who Lara is, and those that do would never pay extra money to watch that dude fight. He's boring and does a lot of running. Canelo is the A side, but he doesn't speak English and he's fighting a virtual unknown in Lara. This fight will not do good numbers. This is an HBO caliber fight. Canelo will do BIG numbers around the Mexican holidays against top PPV level fighters.

That could be the case, but did anyone really know who Angulo was? (Just playing devil's advocate)

[Cuauhtémoc1520]

Interesting to think what made the numbers what they are. Cotto is high up on the boxing PPV pecking order. The undercard was weak, but Martinez was a big-name opponent (despite all the age and health concerns). If Miguel and Maravilla can't sell, it doesn't bode well for interest in the sport. Of course, as some people have pointed out, casual fans might be getting squeezed just a little too much.

I'm interested in the Canelo-Lara numbers myself now. The undercard already looks better than Cotto-Martinez, but the ultimate success of the card will depend on Alvarez.

I absolutely agree that the undercard played a part, it was terrible for the Cotto vs Sergio fight.

Canelo has big pressure on his shoulders in this fight, both inside and outside. Inside he's facing a great boxer and very tough opponent, outside he has the weight of selling this PPV by himself.

No disrespect to Lara, but very few know who he is outside of the hard core fans. If this fight doesn't sell, GB will have to re-evaluate Canelo as a PPV star. Even Mayweather struggled against Maidana not even breaking 800K.

I think the price also has a lot to do with it. $60 for a PPV is absurd now, and more and more people are streaming the fights illegally. If they lower it to $40, I think they get many more buys, because I will gladly pay the $40 and watch it in the comfort of my own home on a big screen tv.

[SlySlickSmooth]

Imagine how great it would be for fights like Cotto-Martinez on ESPN for free.

[CubanGuyNYC]

Yeah exactly. Sports teams get the benefit of representing a city and sometimes an entire state. I have connections to the Detroit Tigers and the Los Angeles Lakers not even because I lived in Detroit or Los Angeles but because I lived near those places at some point. Fighters may be known for their hometowns but most guys, at least in the States, don't enjoy huge support from their fans. Even if they do, it doesn't translate to a national market. It's even worse for fighters who simply aren't from the States. No casual fan has much of a reason to care about whether Miguel Cotto becomes the first Puerto Rican to win anything; nobody cares about whether an Argentine fighter can defend his title.

Too many PPVs don't help. I'm guessing most casual fans would have spent their money on the Mayweather and Pacquaio shows if they had to pick just two. Hard to imagine one person shelling out ~$300 for Canelo, Pacquiao, Mayweather, Cotto, and then Canelo again.

That's why, at least nowadays, unless you're Mexican or Puerto Rican, you better appeal to the imagination at-large, because nobody outside of your ethnic fanbase gives a damn about that bit of personal information. In fact, it might even hurt your marketability in some cases.

I'm fortunate enough to have several boxing fans as neighbors. We take turns throwing fight parties. The average boxing fan, with few friends so enthusiastic about the sport, must have it tough.

[CubanGuyNYC]

I absolutely agree that the undercard played a part, it was terrible for the Cotto vs Sergio fight.

Canelo has big pressure on his shoulders in this fight, both inside and outside. Inside he's facing a great boxer and very tough opponent, outside he has the weight of selling this PPV by himself.

No disrespect to Lara, but very few know who he is outside of the hard core fans. If this fight doesn't sell, GB will have to re-evaluate Canelo as a PPV star. Even Mayweather struggled against Maidana not even breaking 800K.

I think the price also has a lot to do with it. $60 for a PPV is absurd now, and more and more people are streaming the fights illegally. If they lower it to $40, I think they get many more buys, because I will gladly pay the $40 and watch it in the comfort of my own home on a big screen tv.

lol Are you kidding me? I'm rooting for Landy, but it would be almost tragic for the sport if he beats Canelo. lmao It is what it is.

Alvarez was/is being groomed as the next big thing. That's tremendous pressure for anyone. Another loss, this time to a relative unknown, might be all she wrote. Saul will still make money, but his superstar hopes probably go bye-bye.

$60 for a PPV is absurd. But, as with virtually all prices, they rarely go down. Once the standard is in place, the best you can hope for is that it stays that way for a while. Maybe online streaming will be the reason why PPV stays at the current price for some time.

[Cuauhtémoc1520]

lol Are you kidding me? I'm rooting for Landy, but it would be almost tragic for the sport if he beats Canelo. lmao It is what it is.

Alvarez was/is being groomed as the next big thing. That's tremendous pressure for anyone. Another loss, this time to a relative unknown, might be all she wrote. Saul will still make money, but his superstar hopes probably go bye-bye.

$60 for a PPV is absurd. But, as with virtually all prices, they rarely go down. Once the standard is in place, the best you can hope for is that it stays that way for a while. Maybe online streaming will be the reason why PPV stays at the current price for some time.

Yea, I would be very worried if I was Lara to make sure the judges don't rob him. I hope not, because as a fan I want to see the best man win, but I think if it goes to the cards, Lara is going to get the short end of the stick.

Sucks, but money controls the sport. Hopefully we see a KO, and there won't be a need for controversy.

[KnockoutKings]

way below what i had expected but i think this goes to show us that unless u're floyd or manny, u aint cracking 1mil just like that. and people were trashing floyd's and pac's last ppv #'s when it was below average. shiiet aint easy.

Exactly. I hope Arum takes his own advice (doubt it) and only use PPV for super fights. The only people that should be on PPV is if you can move close to 1 million buys. If you can't come close to that, fans shouldn't have to pay to watch them fight on TV.

[RSBonos]

Disappointing numbers, but it really is because there are a lot of PPVs this year and despite some lowered numbers this isn't an indication of people not liking boxing or the PPV industry going down when in fact this will be the most successful year for ppv boxing in a really long time.

To put it in perspective this number would equal or surpass the UFCs best PPV so far in 2014.

[Beater_of_ass]

Golden Boy simply have a much better marketing team than Top Rank, Arum I think admitted as much when he stated in an article that Floyd was right for leaving and marketing to the "urban" as Arum put it, crowd. He then brought up how Ali or Frazier or someone was marketed... that's 40+ gramps, it's a new era. The fact is a few ads on boxing pages, is not marketing, if someone is already logging into a boxing site they would have known about that fight. I didn't see one commercial on TV or ads anywhere else, even on ESPN radio for christ sake.

I live on the west coast but have some radio play or something out here on a sports station at least. Cotto challenging Martinez for the same title Hagler and Leonard had, blah blah, I don't make commercials just saying. This fight was marketed terribly, and really Martinez is not well known at least not much more than Angulo I would imagine. He only had 1 fight on PPV and only speaks spanish, he was held in high regards but was anything but a draw. Still, I was honestly expecting 500k, since the Margarito rematch got 600k. This number is definitely dissappointing, but lack of marketing and a horrific undercard don't help.