Do Fight Cards Billed Latin Fury Or Pinoy Power Limit Boxing Fans?

Several years ago a friend of mine was launching his clothing line it was called something like: “LATINO GEAR”.

I remember telling him are you sure you want to call your line that? The reason I was some what opposed to that idea was cause I felt it limited his clientele. I assumed only people of Latino descent would even consider wearing his clothes so he would lose out on the whole non Latino market. The same thing comes to mind when I think of these fight cards billed: “Latin Fury” or “Pinoy Power”. Would a non Latin person be compelled to buy the PPV that stacks up predominantly Latin fighters? Well the answer would probably depend on how famous the Latin fighter was. Would a non Filipino buy a Pinoy Power Pay Per View without Manny Pacquiao fighting on it?

As a big true boxing fan, and one who happens to be not of Latin descent, I still obviously have a long list of my favorite Latin fighters who are both active and retired such as: Chavez Senior, both Marquez brothers, Barrera, Morales, Vazquez, Arce, Trinidad, Cotto, Lopez, Arguello, Duran, Gamboa, Angulo, and so on and so on, but I am not the general demographic who makes up the wider PPV audience/customer.

The assumption would be that generally speaking white people like really white people such as the cast of Twilight would probably not be interested in a fight card billed: “Latin Fury” unless it had some really big Latin names.

Well this Saturday is Latin Fury 15 headlined by the biggest iconic name in all of Latin boxing history. Yes “Julio Cesar Chavez”….…………. Jr. will be fighting John Duddy at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

Julio the son of legendary Chavez Sr. has an undefeated record of 41(30)-0, but has often been criticized for fighting highly suspicious padded opposition. Ireland’s Duddy 29(18)-1 will be by far his biggest test to date. Julio has also a new weapon on his side with his new trainer Freddie Roach.

Also on the card will be one of Mexico’s former most elite champions Marco Antonio Barrera 65(43)-7   who has been fighting on to stay in the mix. Barrera who has already seen the peak of his prime years fighting other Latin greats such as Erik Morales, and Juan Manuel Marquez,  will be fighting Brazilian light weight Adailton De Jesus 26(21)-4.

Are these names big enough to grasp the larger non Latino PPV market out there? At this point of their respected careers I would say no. There was a time when Marco Antonio Barrera was on top of the world with his huge win over Prince Naseem Hamed and then his all action 3 wars with Erik Morales. At that time you could of called his PPV fights anything you wanted and people would buy it. But at this point of his career he is already an “old” 36 year old with 7 losses and way too many wars under his belt.

Julio on the other hand has a whole lot of hype to live up to being the son of the greatest Mexican fighter who ever lived. Unlike his father he does have certain advantages such as his height, reach, and looking like the ORIGINAL Karate Kid does not hurt him either. Can Chavez Jr. some day live up to his predestined hype set forth by the media and clever management? Well that question remains to be answered. If Roach can make a significant transformation with Chavez as he’s done with so many other great champions then it can definitely be a possibility.

So will you be watching the fight card known as  Latin Fury 15 this Saturday?