Pacman-floyd prelims belong on network tv!

June 30th, 2010 By Kevin Perry
BOXING BIZ IS A SLOW LEARNER!
Los Angeles, CA- Boxing’s power brokers, mainly Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions could learn something from the UFC of today, or ex-boxing promoter Harold Smith of the 1980s. Mr. Smith, who promoted both Tommy Hearns and Aaron Pryor, had them both fight for titles on the same day. Pryor was in Cincinnati, OH fighting Antonio Cervantes on ABC TV fighting in the early afternoon. Later that night Smith had Hearns vs. Pipino Cuevas on Closed Circuit TV (PPV of yesteryear) from Detroit, MI. The Pryor fight on ABC was used to promote the Hearns fight on PPV.
UFC FOLLOWING HAROLD’S PLAN ON SPIKE TV
The UFC’s PPV preliminary bouts can be seen on Spike TV, the cable network that hosts their Ultimate Fighter reality series. Boxing’s possible biggest money fight in history, potentially slated for November, will feature pound for pound kings Floyd “Money” Mayweather and Filipino phenom Manny Pacquaio. Will any paying customer even care about the fights underneath? When you consider the lackluster nature of Top Rank and Golden Boy PPV undercards in recent memory, don’t expect a treat in this one. Why even have an undercard?
NETWORK TV A KEY TO REBUILDING INTEREST
In this instance this could be an important stage to showcase some of their upcoming stars. Attempts in the last few years to bring boxing back to network TV have been unsuccessful due to a lack of interest from sponsors and a lack of work ethic from promoters to gain interest from sponsors. At the end of the day network TV execs want promoters to bring along their own sponsors, and without marquee names attached to a particular promotion chances are sponsors wouldn’t be interested. Considering the amount of attention that this fight is getting without either fighter even having have signed on the dotted line sponsors realize the enormity of this clash. In a match expected to crush all PPV records, various companies (sports apparel and beer companies especially) have an interest in this match-up.
ARE PROMOTERS JUST TOO GREEDY TO MAKE CHANGES?
The undercards could and should be broadcast on network TV. Why? There’s a few reasons. No one really cares about the undercard and no one buys the PPV events for their undercard fights. When you consider that the numbers of buys is not adversely effected by the quality of the prelims, why not use it as a promotional tool like the UFC does. They could host these bouts in the afternoon (starting at 5 PM) and run it as a 2-3 hour program all the way up to the main event or co-main event. Both sides (Top Rank and Golden Boy) could get a valuable return on their investment by having sponsors subsidize the undercard while giving the main event added promotion in the build up.
BOXING SUITS HAVE NO FORESIGHT AT ALL!
The promoters have an obligation to build their stars and what better way to use this promotion as an avenue to showcase their talent to millions of homes. If the UFC can do it for the majority of their PPV events, I think boxing should follow suit even if it’s only for this one mega event. The biggest question here is what fights would be worthy to be showcased?:-(