Haye vs. Chisora: Controversy Will Sell Fights Long After Mayweather Retires

David Haye vs. Dereck Chisora just sold 17,000 tickets. If boxing is dead, it's making for a mighty fine corpse.

Haye is decently famous in Britain, but not enough to sell 17,000 tickets on his own. Chisora is not a ticket seller at all. So why are so many people buying tickets to a freshly announced fight?

Controversy.

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are sold to the public as the main attractions to pay attention to in boxing.

But who will light the torch that Father Time will force the wrinkling hands of Mayweather and Pacquiao to drop?

I say Father Time's younger relative, Cousin Controversy, will help keep boxing alive.

Here's how.

The Haye-Chisora Brawl

Vitali Klitschko (44-2, 40 KO) took on Dereck Chisora (15-3, 9 KO) on Feb. 18.

After giving the usually dominant WBC heavyweight champ a tough time, Chisora went into the post-fight press conference with praise and respect hovering above his name.

Then came David Haye (25-2, 23 KO). Haye lost his last fight against Vitali's brother, Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KO).

Who invited Haye? Who knows? All that matters is Haye opened his big mouth, and Chisora got enraged enough to come meet him.

The brawl captured the attention of millions of British and European fans. Multiple videos of the fight on YouTube received millions of hits each.

This type of controversy is what sells a decent fight as a must-see blockbuster event.

Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito: A Modern Blueprint for Selling Controversy

If a fight fan wanted to see how controversy sells fights, they wouldn't have to travel back to Louis vs. Schmeling or Ali vs. Frazier to do so.

Dec. 3 of last year produced a well-promoted grudge fight between Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO) and Antonio Margarito (38-8-1, 27 KO) in front of a sold-out crowd in Madison Square Garden.

The pay-per-view sold over 600,000 buys. Cotto is known, but he's far from the household names that Mayweather and Pacquiao have become.

Margarito is only known to casual fans as the man who beat Cotto and then got caught with plaster in his gloves against Shane Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KO).

Their promoters used this knowledge to their advantage to make millions.

All of sudden, Cotto's first loss was put under a microscope. Margarito was painted as a plaster-using, villain, and Cotto was portrayed as the Puerto Rican hero looking for revenge and redemption.

When given their own documentary segment in HBO's critically acclaimed 24/7 series, as well as other fight-hype segments like HBO's Face Off, Cotto-Margarito II became a smash.

Audiences race toward stories that can be latched on to. They cheer when a kid from the slums beats the odds and boo the cocky guy who makes it look easy.

Haye vs. Chisora has a story. One guy is an agitator (Haye), and the other is a fighter who wants nothing more than to shut the agitator up.

Audience, on your mark.

Get set.

Spend.