Welcome to a special edition of Payout Perspective where we take a look at Floyd Mayweather’s latest fight since last May as he took on Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mayweather fights technical masterpiece against Guerrero
It wasn’t exciting but Mayweather showed that he still has it. While Guerrero had his moments, Mayweather took a bulk of the rounds to win by unanimous decision.
One might have thought a change in trainers from Roger Mayweather to Floyd Sr. might have hurt. Aside from forgetting his mouthpiece before a round, there were no issues.
Floyd now has a choice of challengers set for September 14th in Vegas with the prospect of a huge fight with Canelo Alvarez coming May 2014.
Mares takes out friend De Leon
The best fight of the PPV main card was the penultimate fight of the night which featured two friends with the same manager fighting. Abner Mares knocked out Ponce De Leon in the 9th round. Arguably, Mares is the best 126 pound fighter out there outside of Nonito Donaire (a fight that was nixed due to a stall in negotiations) or Guillermo Rigondeaux (who defeated Donaire in March).
UFC fighters should look at these fighters as they put aside their friendship to meet.
Attendance and gate
According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, attendance was a sellout at 15,880 fans and a gate of $9.9 million (via Kevin Iole). The numbers are slightly better than Mayweather’s September 2011 against Victor Ortiz (13,364/$9M).
Promotion of the Fight
This was the first fight Mayweather has had under his deal with Showtime and it appeared that he was on his best behavior to show CBS/Showtime executives he was worth the money.
The only real controversial beef was Ruben Guererro’s tirade over Floyd Mayweather and Sr.’s response. Aside from this flare-up, there was a generated “green screen” trash talk sessions between the two fighters early on but nothing as the fight grew closer.
Mayweather made an appearance during CBS’ Final Four to start the ball rolling for the fight. Showtime had a four part All Access show which was widely available online for those not subscribers of Showtime. CBS also featured Mayweather in a 1 hour special the Saturday before the fight. That documentary did poorly as it was last in its timeslot among network shows.
Aside from the “May Day” commercials, the Mayweather fight was even promoted on room keys and “Do Not Disturb” signs in the MGM Grand.
The Audience Network showed the Mosley-Mayweather fight and the Aydin-Guerrero fight the preceding the weigh-ins to get fans ready for Saturday.
Payouts
Mayweather will make $32 million from Saturday’s fight while Roberto Guerrero will make $3 million. The $32 million reported to the Nevada State Athletic Commission does not include the ancillary money Mayweather (and possibly Guerrero to a lesser extent) will make from PPV buys, closed circuit revenues, etc.
Sponsors
O’Reilly Auto Parts and Corona were the two key sponsors for the fight. O’Reilly did promotions within its stores and Corona provided promos in-stores where Corona was sold. I don’t believe that there were discounts on the PPV as is customary where Tecate promotes events.
ATT, Valvoline and Star Trek’s “Into Darkness” were sponsors on the mat and above the ring.
As is tradition, Mayweather did not wear any sponsors on his trunks for his fight although he did have Reebok ring shoes. He also wore Reebok gear during the Showtime All Access show.
Roberto Guerrero had multiple sponsors on including Shoe Palace which was the most visible of sponsors during the All Access show. He also had Brabble.com on the front of his shorts as well – a social media video sharing site. He also wore a “God is Great” shirt to the ring which had sponsor California Superstores on the back.
Odds and ends
In addition to PPV and closed circuit, the fight was shown in theaters via NCM Fathom which is the same company the UFC partners with to show its fights in movie theaters.
I was impressed with Paulie Maglignaggi’s television analysis. I haven’t seen him before and thought he brought more info than most experts. Former MMA announcer Mauro Ranallo did an impressive job on the call too. During the survey of stars in the crowd, Ranallo called Neil Patrick Harris’ character on How I Met Your Mother (sidenote: can that guy meet his wife already to end the series) Barry Stinson instead of Barney Stinson. Ranallo actually corrected himself later in the broadcast. I think since CBS is paying for it, might want to get the character names right.
How did the promotion of the fight compare with an HBO promotion? The traditional all access shoulder programming was distributed freely online (i.e., if you looked for it you could legally see it for free) as opposed to the multiple showings of HBO’s 24/7 on CNN and other Time Warner networks. The production was different and I thought the announcing team overall was better than HBO’s usual cast.
Conclusion
Dan Rafael and Kevin Iole (via Bad Left Hook) are both reporting that the PPV buys may be under a million which would be considered a disappointment considering its the first Mayweather fight in a year. Perhaps the lack of buzz, the lack of name-worthy opponent and Mayweather’s lack of brashness attributed to poor PPV buys. Of course, the practical aspect of a $70 PPV to watch just one fight probably contributed to the poor sales. We will see what this means for the future of what Sh
“According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, attendance was a sellout at 15,880 fans and a gate of $9.9 million (via Kevin Iole). The numbers are slightly better than Mayweather’s last appearance against Victor Ortiz (13,364/$9M).”
Floyd’s last fight was against Cotto. Ortiz was back in 2011. Dan Rafael and Kevin Iole reported yesterday that early trending data shows that the Mayweather-Guerrero event will be under 1 million buys. How far under is yet to be determined.
@Weezy02: Made the correction. This fight slightly above the attendance/gate of his September 2011 fight with Ortiz.
Im guesstimating 800k
Wow, that’s some heavy losses for Showtime. How much do you think the lack of HBO’s “24/7” hurt the buyrate? That “All-Access” show didn’t feel on the same level at all, and his audience was trained to expect the “24/7″s.
His story is tired. He’s simply not an interesting character to follow.
Agree. You can only take so much of the “money” persona. I watched the first of the 4 shows and that was it for me. Didn’t watch the rest. Didn’t buy the PPV. Though I would have liked to see the Mares fight.
Floyd is guaranteed $32M and Guerrero $3M. Plus the rest of the guys on the card. Plus the costs of the All Access (a couple of million I’m guessing) and the PPV broadcast.
PPV cost was 59.99 or 69.99 depending on SD or HD – assume most bought in in HD – That’s about $56M in PPV, of which Showtime gets half or $26M. I don’t know how much of the gate Showtime gets to keep, but this is definitely a money loser. They need to be over 1 M buys to see any money. Good move by Mayweather. Savviest fighter in the business.
Does Showtime “distribute” the PPV? They may get more than half, in which case they could be OK. I’m not sure how that works. Either way it’s not exactly lucrative unless the PPVs are north of 1M.
Paulie is awesome. He clearly has a career in broadcasting after he hangs up his gloves. He’s the best color commentator in boxing as far as I’m concerned. Eloquent and fight savvy, he’s much better than Roy Jones, who tends to stumble over his words or Lennox and Emmanuel who used to mostly sit quietly unless Lampley asked them a direct question.
I do like the overall Showtime booth. It has a different vibe than HBO so it’s tough to compare directly, but for me Paulie puts Showtime over the top. There’s nothing better than a fighter’s insight. Most just can’t deliver it smoothly.
Honorable mention for Teddy on ESPN Fight Night as well. Another favorite of mine.
@Diego
I was impressed with Paulie and may have to get Showtime as they will be having some great fights upcoming.
I think Lampley makes the HBO telecast simply because he’s blunt and is not afraid to take a side. Also, “Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang…” was the best PbP ever.
Teddy Atlas is another who tells it like it is too.
Teddys ego is out of control
diego
“Lampley makes the HBO telecast simply because he’s blunt and is not afraid to take a side” how is taking a side a good thing for a Pbp guy? lampley is biased as hell, always pro the house fighter. his calls mislead the audience and contributes so much to controversies. lampley is a cancer
indemand gets half of the ppv cut , showtime lost money on this show .
adder,
That was Jason’s comment. But I agree with it so I’ll defend it. What Jason is saying is that if a fighter is performing well, Lampley isn’t afraid to call it out. And if a fighter is getting schooled, he’s not afraid to call it out either. PbP guys don’t need to try to be fair and balanced. If there’s a beatdown being delivered in the ring, it’s OK to say as much.
The HBO booth does have a tendency to fall into groupthink which can skew their perspective on a fight, and I often disagree with Harold’s scoring since he tends to favor counter-strikers over pressure fighters. That said, Lampley is very good at his job, knows (generally) what he’s seeing, and will call it as such.
Sampson,
Teddy’s ego may or may not be out of control. I don’t know the man personally so I can’t comment. What I do know is that he’s a very insightful and entertaining PbP commentator. What else can you ask for?
And I’ve learned the hard way to follow his fight predictions. When he says a guy is overrated or overlooked, he’s usually right.
You dont know shit about boxing
diego
oops sorry, yea that was meant for Jason. but since you agree with him I have to say you’re wrong too. watch lampley carefully, he tends to go over board on his love for certain guys. pacquiao in recent years and De la hoya in the past got so much favorable calls. for example, watch how he’ll say, “A HARD LEFT HAND BY MANNY!” when the left hand actually missed. rarely will he call a miss for his favorites. his non favorites miss all the time in his eyes though
lampley is a clown , roy jones is actually pretty good, usa tuesday night fights had the best team
with ogrady and his partner.
emmanuel steward was great to, but lampley and kellerman are clowns
especially kellerman