By Norm Frauenheim–
Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been called the face of boxing about as often as Caesar has been called the face of ancient Rome. Anybody who has been to the modern Rome and walked around the crumbling Coliseum, knows what happened the Caesar’s version. But more on that later. From tickets to T-shirts, Mayweather is the man in charge. He controls everything. That, at least is the portrayal, which presumably he also controls.
But the build-up to his rematch with Marcos Maidana on Sept. 13 at Las Vegas MGM Grand includes signs of erosion in the power that Mayweather is said to have in a chaotic business.
Let’s start with the idea that he picks and chooses opponents the way a potentate picks a butler.
Maidana trainer Robert Garcia suggests that he had no choice but Maidana.
“I truly believe that he had no other options,” Garcia said during a conference call. “He was forced to take the rematch. He was forced to fight Maidana again. There were no other big names out there that Mayweather could fight in September that made sense. The rematch with Maidana is the only fight that made sense to sell pay-per-view and to please fans. He had no other options and that’s why he took the fight.”
If Garcia is to be believed, there was no else on Mayweather’s list of possibilities. But did anybody ever sense a groundswell of public demand for a Mayweather-Maidana rematch? Didn’t think so. Truth is, Maidana was Mayweather’s choice for September at the very moment his difficult victory by majority decision was announced last May. His motivation for the rematch might be rooted in the fact that the May win was less than convincing. It also fell short of the knockout he seemed to say he was pursuing.
“It was a close fight and he probably wants to prove a point,” Maidana said during the same conference call. “He wants to demonstrate that he can beat me outright.”
True enough. But here’s the problem: If this was an ordinary time, Mayweather’s decision to fight Maidana again would make sense. To wit: Clean up the mistakes and move on. But these aren’t ordinary days and haven’t been since Mayweather signed a landmark deal, reportedly worth a potential $250 million, with Showtime. It’s deal that promises superlatives and surprises. As an attraction, Mayweather-Maidana II doesn’t offer much of either.
The best guess is that Mayweather re-exerts his jab, controls the fight and scores a runaway decision. The expectation is that Mayweather establishes the dominance predicted before the first fight. At a median price of $70- per-view, that represents a tough sell. That kind of price tag screams for something yet unseen, or at least an element that further defines Mayweather as one of the best ever. The rematch promises a lot of the old. But the demand is for something new.
The ongoing decline in PPV sales this year is an indication that potential customers will continue to stay away until there’s fundamental change in the way the business is ruled. Showtime has never announced the PPV numbers for Mayweather-Maidana I. According to various sources, it fell short of one million, a milestone. It’s also a Mayweather expectation, which — fair or not — is built into the The Money Team nickname. Media reports placed it at between 850,000 and 900,000.
In a possible attempt to secure more pay-per-view revenue for the rematch, Showtime altered scheduling for the Mayweather-Maidana II card. It will start an hour earlier, 5 pm PST/8 pm EST. It’s a good move. Maybe, it attracts customers who might have stayed away because of the late start in the East. But there’s also a sense that a scheduling move merely chips away at what is the real problem. The public has always wanted Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather Promotions, which polled fans via social media to pick between Amir Khan and Maidana last February, doesn’t need to conduct another poll or hire Gallup to prove that one. Instead, disaffected customers are offered a second version of Mayweather-Maidana, which left them indifferent the first around.
If there are any doubts about brewing trouble within the game, there’s confirmation in a recent step taken by its most enduring star, Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins agreed to a deal to fight dangerous Sergey Kovalev within a day. Hopkins never sought a rematch of his split decision over Beibut Shumenov. Fans just would’t buy a repeat, despite the split cards. A good businessman has to know when there’s a shift in customer sentiment. The guess from this corner is that Hopkins, also a promoter, understands that the customers are fed up. They don’t want re-runs. They want a whole new show.
A further indication came from Pacquiao came this week in a story reported by Yahoo’s Kevin Iole. Pacquiao is thinking bout moving down in weight, from 147 pounds to 140. It’s also a move that would take him further out of Mayweather’s orbit of possibilities. Or impossibilities, depending on the point of view.
According to the story, Pacquiao is looking for big fight at junior-welterweight. Danny Garcia was mentioned. Garcia also has been speculated as a Mayweather possibility.
Mayweather is still a force, of course. But his rules aren’t everybody else’s. Whether it’s Hopkins or perhaps Pacquiao, there’s an emerging sense that more fighters are looking around and seeing a growing number of empty seats in that proverbial Coliseum. Multiply those empty seats over time and you wind up with ruins. The only way to save the place is by exercising available options. If Mayweather won’t, somebody else will.
