I'm boiling mad that Santa Cruz/Mares 2 is not happening and now both guys are having tuneup fights. was that really necesary? I saw an article where Santa Cruz asked for tuneup and I was like wtf. a tune up?!? the same could be said for previous PBC fighters like Danny Garcia fighting Samuel Vargas (a tomato can) , Daniel Jacobs fighting Mora twice, Stevenson fighting Fonfara twice, and don't even get me started on Wilder. seems to me that PBC fighters are often guilty of taking tune up fights.
Tunes ups are a big part of every single banner I can think of. What specifically about the PBC do you think is different?
Since willdee only fights homeless carnival fat men, what could he possibly use as a tune up? Would him having a wank count as a tune up?
The Haymon era is the era of the perpetual tune up. With promoters mostly out of the way, Al and the fighter split a lot of the money the promoter was getting, which means a fighter can fight less often. But also there's no promoter insisting on big name opponents to make marqee fights. Haymon's strategy seems to be, fight a lot of easy comp, then take a challenge only when you really need to. It hasn't done great things for his fighters' popularity, but they seem to be doing better financially.
I don't think it's jut PBC. Another thing about "tune up" fights is this; if guys don't fight the riskiest fight each and every time out, do we get to see them fight more? Especially with established fighters with respectable records, I'm inclined to cut a them a little slack. Considering their styles, can one really blame Santa Cruz or Mares if they want to get another payday under their belt before jumping back into the meat grinder?
