Is richest fight in history enough to sway popularity of sport back into spotlight?
By just about any metric, the welterweight fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao tonight in Las Vegas will be the most valuable in boxing history.
From the purse (estimated to be $300 million), to pay-per-view (costing $99.95 for HD viewers), to ticket prices (selling from $3,000 to $45,000 on the secondary market), there aren’t many monetary records that the fight won’t set. Even Mayweather’s diamond-andgold mouth guard is worth a reported $25,000.
Part of the excitement is the anticipation. Fans have been calling for a showdown between Mayweather and Pacquiao since as early as 2009, but various complications have kept the two boxers — two of the best of their generation — from getting in the ring together until tonight.
But while the fight has piqued the interest of many casual sports fans, that doesn’t necessarily mean boxing is going to return to the center of the sports landscape the way it was a half-century ago.
Local boxing promoter Mark Yankello said there’s no doubt this is the fight people have been waiting to see, but he doesn’t think it will create a resurgence for the sport.
“You can put everything into that one fight, and it doesn’t really trickle down to the rest of the sport,” Yankello said.
One of the problems is that there’s no guarantee the fight will
be all that entertaining. A boxing match, by nature, could last all 12 rounds, or it could be over in less than a minute with a first-round knockout.
Mayweather (47-0) is undefeated as a professional; Pacquaio has lost two of his past five fights. Both fighters are past their primes, with Mayweather 38 and Pacquiao 36.
“You just don’t know whether the fight’s going to be a stinker or not,” Yankello said. “Mayweather has the ability to do that. He’s talented enough, sneaky enough, tricky enough and knows how to kill the clock.”
The other issue for fans wanting to see the fight is the price. The pay-per-view cost ($89.95 for non-HD viewers) is the highest in boxing history, and many bars and restaurants have balked at the high price and won’t be airing the fight. The price for a bar or restaurant to show the fight is based on their occupancy limit, and runs around $20-$25 per person.
Fewer than 7 percent of the Buffalo Wild Wings across the country are showing the fight, and none in the Pittsburgh area.
“I think it's about $5,100 a restaurant and so we did not feel comfortable with the cost,” Buffalo Wild Wings COO James Schmidt told Business Insider.
There are a few area restaurants that took the plunge and will show the fight. Dallas-based Dave & Busters will carry the fight at its Homestead location with a $20 cover or buffet packages starting at $60.
Fox & Hound in Ross will show the fight by decision of their corporate offices in Wichita, Kan., but will charge a $25 cover at the door.
Chris Chang, manager of the Ross location, did not have an exact price the restaurant paid to air the fight, but with a capacity of 270, it was likely about $6,000.
Still, he said he expects the investment to pay off. He had to bring in extra staffers just to answer phones this week, and even has $5 gift certificates ready for anyone who gets turned away at the door because they’re over capacity.
“It’s the biggest fight of the millennium, how could you not show it?” Chang said. “We force ourselves to host every pay-per-view sporting event because we want to make sure our guests know that any time there is a pay-per-view event, you always know that we’re going to have it.”
That also could be one of the sport’s problems, according to Bob Brown, who runs the Pittsburgh Boxing Club. He said he hopes boxing gets away from the pay-per-view model and becomes more accessible to more people. And while pay-per-view for the biggest fights might not be going away — especially after how much this one makes — boxing is starting to reappear on network television.
NBC signed a deal in January that brought the sport back to prime-time network TV. CBS and ESPN also have agreements with various boxing entities to air fights. One of Yankello’s fighters, Rankin native Monty Meza-Clay, is headlining a card May 15 on ESPN2.
“I think it’s making a big comeback,” Brown said. “You’re starting to see a lot of boxing on network television. I think that that has a more positive impact and increase in the fan base for boxing.”
Yankello and Brown agreed that this exposure, more than the hype surrounding the MayweatherPacquiao fight, is what can help grow the sport in the long run.
“They’re trying to make a push on making it a more relevant sport to the mainstream,” Yankello said. “It’s an exciting time in boxing from that standpoint, and I think this fight fits right into that.”