Superstar Canelo Alvarez vs JC Jr. does 1 MILLION PPVs

I happened to be in Houston when Mayweather-Canelo took place. We were working that weekend but I called every sports bar until I found one on on our side of town that was carrying the fight -- like a $15 cover charge to get in.

We worked fairly late and walked in maybe 10 minutes before the main event intros. It was literally standing room only, shoulder to shoulder, and this was a pretty big place.

Me and my two friends and maybe a few waitresses, as near as I could tell, were the only non-Hispanics there. And I don't mean third-generation, English-speaking.

It was pretty quiet, naturally, the way the fight went. Enjoyed the experience, but it's eye-opening to see the hardcore support that Mexican-Americans (and Mexican Mexicans) have for their fighters.

So, really, I'm not surprised. Sorry they got such a dud of a fight.

 

Your word is fine with me. I just couldn't find a source and it seems a little early for the numbers to come out.

 

The fight was a dud, mainly do to Chavez' unwillingness to take a risk and live up to the Mexican reputation. Chavez could have gone out on his shield and saved face, but he chose not to get KO by Canelo and simultaneously destroy any chance he had at reviving his career. Mexicans have been clowning Chavez relentlessly on social media.

Overall, it was a great event, and at least at my house we all had a great time with lots of food drinks, and family as we do for many of the major PPV fights.

 

check out Fat Dan's twitter says its expected to hit at least 1mil

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">No official numbers yet for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CaneloChavez?src=hash">#CaneloChavez</a> PPV but I&#39;m told it will be at least 1 million buys. A huge number for the fight. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/boxing?src=hash">#boxing</a></p>&mdash; Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) <a href="

This content is protected

">May 9, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Link?

 

FFS I was hoping no one bought it, bad news for boxing to show case such a pathetic fight, this made Floyd vs Pacman look like the fight of the century.

 

I knew it would hit close to 1 million. ODLH and Canelo gange raped the Chavez name on a big Mexican Holiday.....Sick but smart biz move IMO

 

Stronger than I expected, that's a money making business

 

That's an experience that I fear is missing for so many these days with the 'watch it on your device/pirate a signal' generation.

I've been to more live fights than I can count. My father took me to amateur bouts in my little town when I was still learning to ride a bicycle. And we'd watch them on free network TV.

Then as I got a little older, the 'golden age' of closed circuit came around with the Fab Four -- we'd get a group of four or six or eight together and drive an hour to the nearest big city and watch it in a basketball arena/civic center: Duran-Leonard, Leonard-Hearns, Holmes-Cooney.

My first night in Nashville when I moved there -- first job out of college, in a town where the only people I know are the ones I'll be working with whom I met on my interview -- was the night of Leonard-Hagler. I noticed an ad in the paper and went down to the Civic Center and bought a ticket. Seats were scarce, it was basically sold out ... I ended up sitting in an aisle at first and then a group of people waved me over and said they had a seat.

Not the same as live, but it's an arena full of people cheering (or booing) with every shot, experiencing it together. You might not know the people sitting around you, but they were fight fans and you're a fight fan and it's a shared experience. Maybe some good-natured ribbing back and forth, but nobody takes it serious. We're all there to enjoy the big fight.

Later as I made friends there, of course some of them were boxing fans (mostly casual) and one of them was an aspiring chef and we'd get together for the bigger fights on HBO, a roomful of us -- maybe three or four, maybe eight or 10 -- and John would take up a collection and cook something really cool and somebody would bring the beer ... and it was always a great time no matter if the fights were good or not. I still talk boxing with one of them on the phone and by text even though we're hundreds of miles away and haven't seen each other in years and years. It's a shared bond.

I really didn't plan to get the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, but I wasn't working that night and somewhere around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, I got an idea. I called my Pop (my father, who is in his mid-70s) and told him I was going to order the fight and invited him over. He was so excited. Me, too. He showed up with hot wings and we sat down and watched the PPV start to finish.

Yeah, the fight was a dud ... but I wouldn't trade that evening with my father for a Fight of the Decade watching it on my iPad alone. We still talk about it. So the other weekend, I texted him and told him what time Joshua-Klitschko was coming on Showtime and he asked if I wanted to come over and watch. (They live about half an hour away, give or take.) Well you bet I did, and he and my mom had gotten chips and dip and even grilled up some burgers on the quick and we had a blast.

I hope everyone gets to experience seeing boxing live and in person -- it's a different sport. But mostly I hope all of you have (or make) real, live, friends (not the internet kind, but the kind you can hang out with) and go to a fight or get the group together to watch a PPV or a Showtime or HBO show or whatever.

To me, that's what boxing really is. Without that, I may as well just close my eyes and punch something random on Netflix.