Most brilliant boxing marketing ploys?

Floyd going from pretty boy to his "money" persona.

 

Foreman grill infomercials.

 

This Jake Paul clown has some scam going. I wouldn’t pay for it personally

 

Lou Nova claiming he 'adopted' Yoga and developed a Cosmic Punch

Ray 'Windmill' White and his antics and assortment of crazy punches

Kid Gavilan with his flashiness and flashy bolo punch

Battling Siki walking a lion down the streets of Paris

 

Along the lines of the Cosmic punch, Ingo made hay with his ‘Toondar’ hammer of Thor right hand, same for Gerrie Coetzee with his ‘bionic’ right.

Those were basically gimmicks — they this guy has some special advantage that can strike from anytime, anywhere.

Tex Rickard was boxing’s original marketing genius. He turned a nothing fight — Dempsey vs. Carpenter — into the sport’s first million-dollar gate (actually more than $1.7M by claims/reports of the day) by selling Dempsey as a draft dodger vs. the Frenchman as a war hero (he was a WWI pilot) and played his own guy as the heel.

 

I don't think it was planned for but the entire shroud around the Barry McGuigan story really worked. Here is an Irish featherweight who comes along at the height of 'The Troubles' wearing blue trunks rather than the Irish tri-color or a Union Jack, with a Dove embroidered on them for peace. The phrase, "Leave the fighting to McGuigan" was in print everywhere. His Dad sang 'Danny Boy' as he entered the ring. And also, the kid could fight. It was a great job if it was a marketing scheme, but I think it all just fell into place.

 

Dave Wolf went to the National Golden Gloves to scout fighters and saw a guy who lost in the quarterfinals and signed him rather than courting the guy who beat him or others who did better.

Wolf figured the kid’s style as more of a brawler and physical pressure fighter would translate well to the pros, but he also saw a story he could tell.

Ray Mancini’s entire career was built around the storyline of Ray trying to win the championship that his father never captured. Lenny Mancini had lost a split verdict to Sammy Angott and was in line for a title shot when WWII broke out, costing him his prime pro years. He wasn’t bad after the war but never regained that stature, but his kid wanted to bring home the championship that eluded his pop.

Wolf, with Bob Arum promoting and CBS televising, marketed that story to make Mancini — a good but not ATG fighter — one of the top draws and best-paid fighters of his day.

 

Eubank being the pantomime villain. It made him tens of millions while his peers (like Colin McMillan, Duke McKenzie, Herbie Hide, Steve Robinson, Steve Collins, Chris Pyatt, Mike Watson, Herol Graham etc) were basically broke.

 

I’ve never quite understood the British fascination with pantomime and how big it is there.

 

The Delahoya fight was the first appearance of “ Money” Mayweather

 

Before Eubank there was Mick McManus the wrestler.

 

I heard that it’s banned now because it might be offensive to some people.

 

When Holyfield fought Foreman, the PPV marketing was pretty cool.

This is back when you had to go to your cable company to get a box or something to order the fight. Which I did, of course. And when you ordered, they had pin-on buttons about the size of the bottom off a coffee cup supporting either fighter, marketed as an old vs. young thing.

They gave me an Evander when I ordered and I asked if I could have “You can do it George!” instead. The lady told me I’m supposed to be for Evander because I’m young, haha. I told her I liked both but wanted the George pin because how could you not like George.

(Side note, Foreman vs. Cooney was nicknamed ‘The Preacher and the Puncher” but some wise-ass — Bert Sugar probably — came up with “Two Geezers at Caesars” instead.)