Mayweather vs. Cotto Fight: Thrilling Match Proves Boxing Is Still Relevant
For those of you who think that boxing is dead, you'd better look again.
Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto put on a brilliant display in their highly anticipated fight, thrilling the massive crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Money actually went toe-to-toe with Cotto, taking a beating in the process but ultimately giving better than he got.
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The most poignant thing about the match for the boxers, besides the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, is most certainly the money they earned. Per ESPN, Mayweather earned a record-setting $32 million just for showing up, while Cotto earned a career-best $8 million for doing the same. This money doesn't even account for the pay-per-view earnings both fighters will be pulling in.
Boxing, like all professional sports, is a business, and businesses are in business to do one thing: make money.
If boxing were truly dead, there's no way these two men would be pulling in the kind of income they did. People clearly wanted to watch the fight. And in the end, the athletes put on a terrific show that left most fans happy they had taken the time and money to watch the bout.
Per Ryan Maquiñana of CSNBayArea.com:
"Floyd: "I made over $32M tonight. Hopefully after the numbers come in, it'll be 50-70M. Thanks Al (Haymon) and Richard (Schaefer)" #boxing
— Ryan Maquiñana (@RMaq28) May 6, 2012"
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer spoke to BoxingScene.com before the fight to talk about the pay-per-view numbers he expected to see from the fight. He stated that he expected to see the fight pull in to overtake Mayweather vs. Oscar De La Hoya's fight in 2007, which pulled in 2.4 million buys.
Boxing isn't dead. All it takes is the right combination of fighters to come together for people to become interested enough to shell out their hard-earned cash in order to watch an event.
Now, all we need to see is a heavyweight revival and for Mayweather vs. Pacquiao to become more than just a fantasy.
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