How does one become a major PPV attraction like Oscar de la Hoya, Mike Tyson, Mayweather, Pacquiao, etc.? Is it the personality or their fighting style that keeps the viewers to wanting to see more of them? I know it's a mix of both but which aspect do you think is most important in your opinion? Personality (outside the ring lifestyle) Fighting style (exciting, involved in wars)
To be a star, you have to beat a star. Oscar De La Hoya made his bones off of Julio Cesar Chavez, twice. That, the Olympics, and the win against Whitaker made him rich. Tyson had to beat Spinks and Holmes before he was the man. Mayweather was passed the torch by De La Hoya, same with Pacquiao. You'd think that beating greats like Barrera and Morales would be enough, but their profile wasn't as high as Oscar's even if they were just as great. I really don't think that personality factors into things at all. Mayweather and Pacquiao are as different as it gets. The same goes for Tyson and Holyfield, Leonard and Ali. It's not the wars and having an exciting fighting style. Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward never made that kind of money. Mayweather bores people to tears but he cleans up. It's all about beating a star. Bernard Hopkins had a chance of having the same star studded career as Roy Jones Jr, but then he lost to RJJ, and he had to wait ten years for his next opportunity with Trinidad. He made about twenty title fights in that time, but he still wasn't a star until he beat Trinidad. Who did Trinidad get his star power from: De La Hoya and Whitaker.
Its neither. Like I said in the Crawford post, at the end of the day, its about being bigger than boxing. In other words, mainstream appeal. You need to entertain the masses and have celebrity endorsements, as well as being a good overall champion in the ring...to get a decent fan following. Oscar was that new "pretty boy" that had girls buying his ppv, he was kind a like the Bieber of boxing in a way. Plus he had the new Mexican-American community which finally had their own champion to root for. Floyd made friends with 50 cent and surrounded himself with famous people to get attention, and he had a decent personality to promote his fights. Tyson lived in the 80s, where strong MANLY MEN were in style (aka Stallion, Schwarzenegger, etc...). Tyson became a celebrity himself too. Ultimately that's basically it, you need to become a celebrity. Boxing isn't a weekly sport, which means your face isn't gonna be on espn every other day. Hence you need to do things outside the sport to remain relevent. Unless a fighter does this, they will never become strong ppv guys no matter how good or dominant they are. P.S. I left one HUGE aspect out, which is if you are an immigrant from a boxing country. Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, etc...they have the ability to become icons in their country (i.e. Pacquiao) which will lead to them having a huge following regardless of personality. Cotto is lucky he is puerto rican, if he was just a regular american...he wouldn't be half as popular as he is now.
Beating a star can definitely help, but its not as important I think as my previous comment's idea. Even after BHOP beat Trinidad, he never truly became a ppv star. RJJ never had the mainstream ppv appeal either. Beating a star can definitely be a launching point to being a PPV draw, but you have to follow it up with something besides boxing.
It's 99% marketing. A sustained marketing campaign, throughout the media. TV, newspapers, magazines, internet. Of course, the fighter needs to keep winning, at least for a while, so that there's no backlash against the hype, and people have confidence in the product. Same with anything. Advertising, marketing, promotion.
Lol... can you pull more **** out of your ass? Lol... Obviously mainstream appeal is required to becoming a super star... the mainstream public needs to find interest.. As far as your Mexican American comments, they are inaccurate and laughable since you're attempting to sound as if you know what you're talking about.
In this day and age HBO or Showtime pick you to be a star first based on your personality or in ring style. They don;t have a good eye for it though. They tried to ram down our throats that Broner was the next Mayweather
The most important aspect in becoming a star is having a story to sell...what kind of story, a good one, with a healthy market. Whether it's the uneducated, poor, starving 3rd world kid who becomes the most important man in his country, the all American boy or chicano from east LA who wins gold for his mom, the ever classic; young, rich, and ****y BLACK guy disrespecting the good guys. But mainly I was referring to your comments about Mexican American boxing. You clearly lack knowledge about its rich and long boxing history.
