RingSide Report

World News, Social Issues, Politics, Entertainment and Sports

Boxing No Longer Held Hostage: Floyd Mayweather, JR Retires – The Landscape of Boxing is About to Really Change

Do you agree with what "Stacks" said about Floyd Mayweather, JR?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Floyd ThroneBy Anthony “Stacks” Saldaña

“Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or dusk.” –William Arthur Ward

As I sit here and think about the retirement of Floyd “Money” Mayweather, JR., as a true boxing fan I’m ecstatic. Now before Floyd’s fans get up in arms, I am not at all downplaying Mayweather’s accomplishments, his undefeated record, or his unique business and political moves he used to minimize risk and maximize rewards in the fight game. This story is not about Floyd, but about the boxing world and the effects of him retiring.

Let’s take the casual fans, the fans that make this sport the money, the fans that only know what the major networks feed them, the easily persuaded. After the dud of the Mayweather – Pacquiao fight, every boxing social media site was filled with casuals posting “Boxing is Dead” and “The UFC is Better”. This is exactly what boxing promotional companies didn’t want, especially after Floyd Mayweather, JR. and Manny Pacquiao broke Pay-Per-View records with their “Fight of the Century” they had 4.4 million pay-per-view telecasts purchased in the United States alone which generated over $400 million.

So knowing this and knowing that Floyd only had one fight left before retirement, Al Haymon and (PBC) Premier Boxing Champions series which started in March of 2015 began the “Free Boxing for All” campaign utilizing networks such as ESPN, CBS, Spike, NBC and other major networks to push boxing back onto casual fans, by running commercials during prime time network television and during major sporting events. This was the dawn of a new day for boxing as we know it. Now Al Haymon isn’t the only promoter to understand that the boxing “Cash Cow” would soon be gone, because just one day before the premier of the PBC series, Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions started their own boxing series, LA Fight Club at The Belasco Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

Now is this a coincidence? No, Oscar and Al along with CBS, Showtime and HBO have been planning an exit strategy for Floyd long before Saturday night. Golden Boy seems to be headed into a great end of 2015 with three solid fan friendly championship fights. First, October 3rd Lucas Matthysse, 37-3, 34 KO’s takes on Viktor Postol, 27-0, 11 KO’s for the vacant WBC World super lightweight title, then October 17th it’s Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, 33-0, 30 KO’s Vs David Lemieux, 34-2, 31 KO’s for the IBF World middleweight title, the International Boxing Organization World middleweight title, the interim WBC World middleweight title, and the WBA Super World middleweight title, and Golden Boy ends the year November 21st with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, 45-1-1, 32 KO’s vs. Miguel Cotto, 40-4, 33 KO’s for the WBC World middleweight title.

These are all very big fights for Oscar and his promotion company as Golden Boy runs a big risk of their fighters losing all three bouts. Golden Boy is now banking on the Mexican Superstar Canelo to be the next big PPV attraction.This past Friday, Canelo Alvarez, Mexico’s most popular fighter and one of boxing’s biggest stars, signed a multiyear contract extension with Golden Boy Promotions. Is this a clue as to what boxing holds for its future? It just might be. As far as Al Haymon he continues to give the casuals what they want, great match-ups on paper and vicious knockouts in the ring, with the solid fights coming few and far between. What I do know is that Al Haymon is going to have to continue to make money off sponsorships, and keep having 9 fight cards a month until he decides to cross promotional lines with Golden Boy and bring the fans a big PPV card.

As for Oscar De La Hoya he must continue to work with Bob Arum, Top Rank, and others to keep bringing the best fights to the fans. Then again With Bob Arum being 83 years old does he really care about the future of boxing? Come 2016, the big networks, investors, and sponsors will force these promotional companies to make any money lost back, and without a big name like Floyd Mayweather, JR to sell to the millions of casuals, fighter such as Canelo Alvarez, Terence Crawford, Gennady Golovkin, Errol Spence, JR., Felix Verdejo, Sergey Kovalev, Keith Thurman, Deontay Wilder, and Manny Pacquiao will need to be matched up with other top contenders to keep the money flowing for all parties involved. So again, yes I’m ecstatic that Floyd is gone and these promotional companies may in fact be forced to give us the best possible fights.

[si-contact-form form=’2′]

Leave a Reply