By Cliff Rold

200 years ago, Mexico won its independence from Spain.  This weekend, fight fans can be part of the celebration…by rooting for Sergio Mora?

Doesn’t really set the blood to boiling or anything but so goes the television advertising for this weekend’s edition of what has become an annual occasion: the Mexican Independence day weekend pay-per-view show. 

It’s a tradition with its ups and downs.  The ups include a lot of Oscar De La Hoya.

The downs?  Well, that depends on how one looks at it. 

This weekend’s show will be headlined by “Sugar” Shane Mosley (46-6, 39 KO) versus Mora (22-1-1, 6 KO) at Jr. Middleweight.  Mosley, once a champion at Lightweight, Welterweight, and Jr. Middleweight, was last seen losing eleven rounds to Floyd Mayweather.

The last time Mora, still most famous for winning Season One of “The Contender,” was in a fight that mattered he was losing a one-sided rematch for a Jr. Middleweight belt against the late Vernon Forrest.  Who will win this crossroads showdown?

Cost ya’ around $45 dollars ($55 in HD!) to find out. 

Look around among the fans who populate the sports message boards and even some of the punditry and cries of “Why?” aren’t hard to find.  Why is this on pay-per-view?  Is it worth the money?  Isn’t this what is hurting the sport?

The answer to the last question is the only one that really matters.  The answer is no. 

The answer is no because it’s a show for people who follow boxing rather than a show with any hope of real mainstream attention.  The answer to the question of whether it is worth buying the show, whether in affect it is worth watching the show, rests solely in the hand of the consumer.  For a show like this one, that is a good thing.

It was a good thing on the night Mora lost to Forrest.  That bout came on the undercard of an excellent bout between Juan Manuel Marquez and Joel Casamayor.  It was also a good thing in 2006 when Marco Antonio Barrera and Rocky Juarez met in an ultimately disappointing Jr. Lightweight title rematch. 

It was a good thing because the fights were available to those who wanted to see them and they didn’t take away dollars from the budgets of the major networks.

Despite the feeling some convey in their ‘why’s’ that the funds of HBO and Showtime are limitless, they are not.  One can argue that budgets could be allocated better (particularly at HBO) to allow for more dates, more fights, and that’s fine.  However, viewing the landscape as it is rather than as it could be, one recognizes a sort of opportunity cost for fans in the choices networks make.

In this case, would a Shane Mosley-Sergio Mora fight on HBO, a fight which doesn’t look certain to be a barn burner by any stretch, cost fans the opportunity to see something with the look of superiority on paper as part of their general subscriber package? 

It would be hard to argue economic sense in pay-per-view for anticipated showdowns like Amir Khan-Marcos Maidana at Jr. Welterweight or a Middleweight championship throwdown between champion Sergio Martinez and Paul Williams.  Both bouts are tentatively scheduled for HBO later this year.  How many fight fans would be willing to put one of those bouts off until 2011 to see Mosley-Mora?

Let’s assume not many.

It is not to disparage the fight this weekend or the undercard beneath it.  Even if Mosley-Mora ends up more like Barrera-Juarez II than Marquez-Casamayor, what came before the Barrera’s dominant performance made that show worth every dollar.  Joan Guzman beat Jorge Barrios over a spirited twelve rounds at Jr. Lightweight, all but forgotten in the violent afterglow of Israel Vazquez coming off the floor three times to stop Jhonny Gonzalez in a Jr. Featherweight title war. 

Vazquez-Gonzalez is a hard standard to meet, but this weekend still has respectable promise.  Mexico’s Saul Alvarez is seen as a rising star in fight circles and veteran former World Welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir is a real test.  The Featherweight clash between bangers Daniel Ponce De Leon and Antonio Escalante would be shocking if it did not produce a knockout, surprising if it did not feature at least two trips to the floor.   Finding out the answers to the questions those fights will pose costs the same as the main event to find out.

Still, there is the question of why this is on pay-per-view at all?  One could ask if it wouldn’t be more prudent to all but give a show like this away on a basic cable network if it could be found, or on the internet a la last weekend’s Wladimir Klitschko-Sam Peter Heavyweight title match.  Pay-per-view inherently shrinks the audience; those venues would inherently expand the potential for viewers.

It’s a fair question (and network television isn’t mentioned because it isn’t really an option right now.  There’s no magic wand to make it so either). 

The winner of Mosley-Mora will be fine despite the diminished audience.  They have enough cache to move forward to bigger stages after this weekend.  Alvarez could use more U.S. exposure as could De Leon and Escalante.

They also have to be paid now, as do the stars of the show.  Even if the show this weekend only does 100,000 buys on top of the gate, that’s an expansion of the gross revenue base of approximately $5 million dollars.  That’s a lot of money to toss aside.

And between $45 and $55 dollars is a lot of money for some of boxing’s mostly blue collar fan base to be asked to part with.  Those who haven’t already firmly decided “No” will make a choice between now and Saturday night.  It’s a choice fans have faced before with bouts like Muhammd Ali-George Chuvalo on closed circuit in the 1960’s, Michael Nunn-James Toney and Ray Mercer-Tommy Morrison twenty years ago, or Ivan Calderon-Giovanni Segura weeks ago. 

They’ve also faced the choice for “Thunderbox” nights. 

Those were, like this one, shows targeted at fight fans where fight fans had to decide with their wallet what was worth their attention.  There’s no right answer, no satisfaction guaranteed, but at least a chance to have a say.   

Weekly Ledger
But wait, there’s more, this week focused on the new leader for Fight of the Year…
 
ShoBox Coverage: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=30844
Wlad’s 13th Straight: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=30868
Klitschko/Gamboa Report Cards: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=30900
Light Heavy Top Ten: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=30953
Picks of the Week: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=30927

Cliff’s Notes… How does Tomasz Adamek-Vinny Madalone get Adamek ready for a Klitschko?  Is there anything that could?  Probably not but it’s the sort of fight which should make the popular Pole look good going into any 2011 challenge…Neither David Haye or Floyd Mayweather has been quoted for anything notable this week.  That’s not so bad…When does Brandon Rios fight again?...A headline on this site reads that Miguel Cotto-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is still alive.  Chavez’s chances to win aren’t.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com