The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of March 1
A huge week of boxing awaits us, so let's get right into the top storylines that will dominate the seven days ahead.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao are set to meet on May 2 in Las Vegas in boxing's most anticipated fight in decades.
But when will we get all the finer details, such as pricing, ticket information and who will call the fight?
Also, who is the biggest loser from this fight finally getting made?
Hint: He's a certain Puerto Rican middleweight champion.
We speculate on all those topics.
Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions series makes its network debut on NBC Saturday night.
What can we expect from the series, and from the high-level fights that will make up the boxing's first prime-time card of the year?
We have questions and maybe a few answers.
These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week of March 2.
When Will We Get All the Details?
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Just in case you somehow managed to miss it—or joined the Amish in recent days—Mayweather and Pacquiao are finally set to meet in a long-anticipated showdown on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Mayweather announced the fight by posting the signed contracts on his Shots social media account last Friday, and the boxing world has been abuzz with anticipation ever since.
But some details are scarce.
We know that three-fourths of the 147-pound championship will be on the line. We know, per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, that Mayweather’s side will receive 60 percent of the revenue and Pacquiao 40 percent, and we know that there will be two televised undercard bouts on the pay-per-view.
One bout will be chosen by Top Rank, Pacquiao’s promoter, and will likely include featherweight champion and rising star Vasyl Lomachenko. The other bout will be chosen by Mayweather Promotions.
Announcing teams?
That's unclear as yet, but speculation includes HBO’s Jim Lampley and Roy Jones Jr. and Showtime’s Al Bernstein calling the action with Max Kellerman and Jim Gray doing interviews.
Price?
We can talk about ticket pricing all you want, but getting a hold of one of those puppies is going to be nearly impossible unless you’re willing to—literally—break the bank.
Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes reported late in February that tickets are expected to fetch as much as $1,000 for the cheap seats and $5,000 ringside. And those prices are face value designed to generate a live gate of $40 million, which would double the record set by Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez in 2013.
Very few are expected to even be available to the public once the MGM, promoters and sponsors snatch up their share.
You can try on the secondary market, but, again, you’ll need plenty of disposable income and a couch to sleep on when your wife kicks you out of the bed. Or you can miss the month's rent payment.
So that leaves most people who want to see the fight in need of PPV.
What will that go for?
Well, typically a big fight sells for somewhere in the neighborhood of $60-70, depending on whether you want standard—why?—or high definition. No definitive word has surfaced yet, but you can fairly expect this one to probably come in right around $100 for HD.
But that’s still a heck of a lot cheaper than the 40 times that you’ll need to pay on the secondary market to watch it live.
What Can We Expect from PBC's First Showcase Event?
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Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions goes live in prime time Saturday night on NBC from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
In the main event, rising welterweight star Keith “One Time” Thurman puts his undefeated record on the line in his toughest challenge to date against Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero.
In the co-feature, former three-division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner takes on rugged and dangerous John Molina Jr.
These are two quality, high-level bouts featuring big-name fighters who are badly in need of statement wins. They certainly don’t represent the type of soft matchmaking that Haymon—in many cases fairly but in others not—has frequently been criticized for producing.
The big question remains whether or not these early salvos into the network boxing business will consistently generate these types of fights, or if we’ll return to the familiar pattern of big names in mismatches once the dust settles.
The former would obviously be very good for the sport, given the increased exposure of Haymon’s multiple deals with major networks, but the latter would just confirm the worst fears of many people who are new or returning to the sport.
Was Miguel Cotto the Big Loser?
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You just have to think that Miguel Cotto didn't think it would turn out this way, right?
The WBC and lineal middleweight champion seemed like the perfectly logical next option for Mayweather once Pacquiao negotiations—inevitably—broke down again. He was locked in talks for a huge Puerto Rico vs. Mexico showdown with Canelo, but the plug was suddenly pulled after months of negotiations.
With Mayweather and Pacquiao finally coming to terms after boxing's longest running pointless soap opera, Cotto now is left to pick up the scraps and scramble for an opponent.
Miguel Rivera of BoxingScene.com reported last week that an announcement for the Puerto Rican legend's next fight is coming shortly. The leading candidates are former welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, former lightweight champion Brandon Rios and current junior middleweight titlist Cornelius "K9" Bundrage.
No offense to any of the gentlemen listed above, but that's a pretty steep drop from Mayweather and even Canelo.
Bradley is the best and most accomplished of the bunch, but he'd need to move up in weight, and he's already a smallish welterweight. Junior middleweight or middleweight wouldn't likely be kind to him.
The same goes for Rios, who looked motivated and impressive against a highly shot Mike Alvarado in their rubber match but would also be small.
K9?
I haven't heard anyone asking for that fight.
In fact, you haven't heard anyone really calling for any of these fights.
Of course there is one fight that has a market and public demand and makes sense in the scheme of things.
But you shouldn't bet the farm on Cotto or his people going anywhere near Gennady Golovkin in the near future.
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Can One Time Take One Big Step?
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Thurman didn't blow anyone's socks off with a ho-hum decision victory over virtually unknown Leonard Bundu in December on a Showtime-televised card.
It was his worst performance since gaining mainstream attention with his hard-hitting, high-impact style, and it left many fans wondering if they'd jumped the gun in anointing him the future of the welterweight division.
Like everything else, the truth here lies somewhere in the middle.
Maybe we all bought in a little too quickly on Thurman—though I still believe our faith will be rewarded—but we shouldn't be writing him off after one subpar performance against a tricky, awkward foe with absolutely no desire to make a fight.
Thurman will answer plenty of questions on Saturday night when he takes a big step up in class against former multi-weight world champion Guerrero.
The Ghost is an aggressive fighter who likes to push the pace and can be comfortable boxing or brawling. He returned from a yearlong absence—after losing to Mayweather—with a Fight of the Year contender against Yoshihiro Kamegai at the StubHub Center last June.
He easily remains a top-10 fighter in a talent-rich welterweight division.
Both men badly need this win—Thurman to prove he belongs at the top level, and Guerrero to show he can stay there.
And that's one reason—among many—to be excited for this fight.
Does the Problem Have a Problem?
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What else can we say about Broner?
He's better than most give him credit for but probably nowhere near as good as he thinks. And that last part is largely because he's been so open about chasing Mayweather's throne instead of just being himself.
Next up for the Problem?
The very same Molina who dropped Lucas Matthysse twice in a disturbingly bloody near-upset performance last April.
Molina is one of those guys who is tough but limited.
He's lost two fights in a row—Matthysse and then Humberto Soto on the Mayweather-Maidana 2 undercard—but he's going to keep coming forward in every round, trying to change the fight with a big shot.
Question his ability?
Ask Mickey Bey, who won every round of the fight but the last one when he was knocked out.
Broner can't take this one lightly. Every fight is an elimination fight for a guy whom the public is just looking for reasons to give up on.
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