Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we look at “The One,” the fight between Canelo Alvarez and Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Mayweather dominates in Majority Decision
The look on Mayweather’s face when a Majority Decision was announced was not worth the $75 PPV price tag but it was still pretty good. Notably, CJ Ross judged the Pacquiao-Bradley fight which makes one wonder if there are no other qualified judges out there.
The 36 year old did what he does in muting a game Canelo Alvarez. While the judges may have thought it close, there was never a time that Mayweather looked to be in trouble.
Mayweather has indicated that he would like to fight Cinco de Mayo weekend 2014 with Danny Garcia and/or the winner of Amir Khan/Devon Alexander fight. A Khan fight may be the most entertaining based on the styles. A Danny Garcia fight might be the best for promoting the fight with Angel Garcia and Floyd Sr. as sideshow entertainment.
Alvarez had a decent showing yet it would be hard to find a round you can say he won. People liked his utter disregard for Mayweather’s pleasantries which manifested itself with Canelo refusing to hold the belt with Mayweather post-weigh-in, during the fight a shoulder bump after a Mayweather liver shot and a low blow after having his head pushed down.
Garcia defeats Matthysse in slugfest
Angel Garcia is the father and mouthpiece for Danny Garcia and vowed he’d cut his own head off if his son would lose. Although Matthysse was the challenger, he was the favorite coming into the fight. But, Garcia was able to dominate Matthysse despite getting his mouthpiece knocked out (and replayed in slow motion) in the 11th round. Garcia eventually dropped Matthysse in the same round.
Garcia is an understated champion and hopefully with all the viewers for this event, he’ll grab some fans.
Attendance, gate, etc.
The MGM Grand was a sellout of 16,746 for a record gate of $20,003,150. The gate was an all-time record.
Moreover, the weigh-ins was at capacity with 12,200 people coming to watch the fighters get on the scale.
Closed circuit viewing of the event in Vegas were a sellout with tickets going for $100 and being sold for $150 on the secondary market. Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports tweeted that Richard Schaefer indicated that it was a sellout with 26,355 tickets sold.
In addition, more bars across the nation showed the fight and the fight was available in more movie theatres (500) this time around.
Promotion of Fight
An unprecedented 11 city press tour which brought out thousands of fans. So big was the fight that the Garcia-Matthysse fight was to have its own mini-press tour.
The four episode All Access Showtime show was available online so even if you did not have Showtime, you could check it out. Nothing dramatic in these episodes, but a good primer for the fight. It was interesting that CBS did not show any of these episodes on the network.
One of the more underrated promotional tools for the fight is CBS Sports Network, Showtime and the 101 Network airing previous Canelo and Mayweather fights. The best thing about it. You get to see free PPV-quality fights.
ESPN The Magazine had a “Fight Issue” dedicated to the event and the LA Times also had a special section for “The One.”
Despite all of the platforms to watch the fight, PPV remains the central part of the business. Although it was a $75 price tag (in HD), expectations are that PPV will exceed 2 million buys.
Via Forbes:
If the bout does hit its ambitious PPV goals, credit the all-out marketing blitz that mixes target markets with mass markets, and high tech with old school media and promotions. In addition to the natural Hispanic market, promoters say they’re going heavily after the youth and female markets, the better to take advantage of Alvarez’s youth and good looks.
On Wednesday or Thursday of fight week, various athletes and stars tweeted out the fact that they had ordered “The One.” After comparing the tweets, it was obvious that it was part of a social marketing campaign for people to buy the PPV early.
Ready for that action, go get it. Don’t wait to order the @FloydMayweather fight Go to http://t.co/1OOk5duDyp
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) September 13, 2013
Sponsors
The sponsors in the ring included AT&T, Nature Nutrition, Valvoline, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Mexico (we assume the tourism board), Fred Loya Insurance and Corona in the center. Mexico sponsored the scale at the weigh-ins.
This event included record promotional spending of which CBS supported Showtime with $15-$20 million of promotional spots.
Valvoline offered a $35 rebate for the PPV if you purchased 5 quarts of motor oil. O’Reilly Auto parts was the presenting sponsor at movie theatres showing the fight. Corona had promotional displays at 15,000 stores in 32 states.
Canelo Alvarez’s sponsors included Under Armour which included a variety of workout shirts and his ring shoes (via FigherxFashion). Online sales of his shirts were going at a swift pace.
Danny Garcia’s shorts was a sponsor’s nightmare. It was hard to see the sponsors on his trunks unless you absolutely focused on them. I could make out Western Union as one of his sponsors. Also, Garcia had a Jumpman logo on the front of his trunks but wore Adidas ring shoes.
As if he needed more money, Floyd Mayweather pitched his line of “Money Wear” including shirts starting at $35 and his “TBE” hat going for $70.
Odds and Ends
-The weigh-ins included walk-ins for Matthysse, Garcia, Alvarez and Mayweather. No one took advantage of the walk-in more than Angel Garcia.
I would and do RT @dilletaunt: @PabloTorre would you consider Angel Garcia’s dance down the aisle a modified version of the C-walk? #TheOne
— Pablo S. Torre (@PabloTorre) September 13, 2013
-Lil’ Wayne and Justin Bieber walked to ringside with Mayweather which made him the obvious choice as villain for the main event. Wayne rapped his way down to the ring without a shirt. He also watched the entire fight without a shirt either.
-Maybe one of the harder shots Danny Garcia took was when his father hit him in the ear between rounds to wake him up.
-“USA, USA” chants were booed down by the pro-Canelo crowd. A probable first in the states.
Conclusion
“The One” will go in the books as one of the biggest revenue generating fights in history. This summary did not even cover the fact that Mayweather will receive a guaranteed $41 million without even factoring in the other revenue streams. Canelo should receive at least $12 million not counting what he may earn from other revenue streams.
While we note how much will be made from this event, Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy and Showtime did outlay a lot of money with the hope of scoring big…which it looks like it did.
The marketing and promotion for this fight was all over and despite a $75 price tag, we may see a PPV revenue record broken. Will it exceed the number of buys of De La Hoya-Floyd (2.5 million)? Its not clear, but it should be close.
You know your cards doing well when the weighins are full.
You know it’s big when the president of Ultimate Fighting is there wanting a piece of the action.
Amazing show, it was worth the 75 bucks.
You know your cards are doing well when they break the all time record for $$$ at the gate.
Unfortunately the window of opportunity for this big a MMA fight has long since passed. With the over-saturation of MMA by the UFC this sort of fight will not happen. If the UFC remained spectacle and did 6 or so big PPVs and less cable events the mystique would’ve remained and mega fights would’ve been possible. Instead people are tuning out and PPVs are hitting lows not experienced in years.
The card was shit. This just proved the marketing worked. They dumped a pile of money into it and it paid off. The UFC can do events like this in time. The sport is still new. All it takes is a fighter to get mainstream attention. FMJ was selling out to WWE and everything under the sun to get his name where it is and build off what he got from Oscar. You cant expect MMA fighters to get that big in the current landscape. Fighters are lucky to have 15-20 fights before they are washed up. As the sport grows and more people are fighting. It will take more fights to get to the top. So the top guys will have more fights, more wins, and more hype and spend more time in the spot light. Currently, by the time anyone knows your name, you are 3 fights from a title shot. That’s why it always seems like a champion comes out of no where. It takes a champ many fights before the fans start to take them serious. Look how long Silva was the worst draw in the UFC? Weidman still gets no credit. Even after the rematch. Everyone will claim Silva is done and it will take Weidman 3-4 more fights before anyone realizes he is for real.
When the UFC grows. It is already under way with the growth in many countries. These guys will have more time to build themselves up before thrown in the fire.
It would also be foolish for the UFC to ever try to have events like this. It isn’t good for the sport or for business. The UFC has a lot of well known fighters who can headline 300K PPV buy cards. Boxing doesn’t and it never has. But not loading up on a single event. MMA and the Who and its fighters are stronger. Having 1 big event only creates a couple names while everyone else in the industry gets nothing. Also the industry has all its eggs in one basket. What would happen is Pacman and FMJ retire today and never passed the torch? The only reason FMJ is a star now is Oscar passed him the torch. If those two guys pass the torch and make someone else a star. Boxing will be fine. IF they don’t or something happens along the way. Then boxing loses its connection to the mainstream.
There are a couple of more big fights for Floyd and boxing in the next 2 years, but for sure Mayweather vs Canelo 2 will happen.
I agree. It is amazing how many people are sheep. If there is a lot of hype and attention. People want to be a part of it. Even if they haven’t watched boxing before. The big money spent on promotion brings out the suckers. This was a horrible match and I saw no reason it would ever be different unless FMJ loses a step ala Anderson Silva and can finally get hit. IF that is the case. People are buying for a fight that wont be competitive and boring or to see a “has been”. But rest assure the suckers will come out. I wouldn’t even stream a rematch to be honest. I couldn’t stay awake.
@ BS
Actually don’t think it will … UFC is on the decline in North-America – the main PPV market. Just take a look at the PPV buy-rates and ratings if you don’t believe me. If I’m not mistaken GSP/DIAZ did 900k or so, and that’s the highest for 2013 by far. Secondly, once GSP is done, which is soon (he’s even said it)…. who will be “THE ONE” in the UFC?
Jon Jones can pull in 500k, the HW title-fights around the same, Brock Lesnar’s long gone… so who is left? Who’s the next great white (or black) hype?
6 x 1 million PPVs > 14 x 350k PPVs
“The card was shit.”
That’s not true. Unfortunately the fights did not have the excitement that most people hoped for, but there were two very big fights on the card. It wasn’t just marketing, it was a card that pit some of the best athletes in the sport against each other and the PPVs will reflect that. The fact that Mayweather is so much better than anyone else in the sport makes the outcome of his fights a foregone conclusion, but does not detract from his performance.
Mayweather fights are always more technical than exciting – funny how diehard MMA fans defend technical ability when it is displayed by GSP or Fitch but criticize it when it is displayed by Mayweather – and this was no different. The hope was that Canelo’s combination of youth, strength and skill would force Mayweather out of his comfort zone, but Money is just too damn good. We did get to see him come forward and be more aggressive which is not something we get from him every day.
To say that only suckers bought this fight is to assume that only suckers care about seeing the best fighter of his generation ply his trade. Absurd.
Obviously marketing helps sell cards. That’s something that both Dana and Vince McMahon would agree with. But without Mayweather’s skill, and Canelo’s strength and speed, this fight becomes Mayweather v. Guerrero – aka a fight that probably doesn’t break a million PPVs.
Top selling PPVs of all-time:
1) UFC 100 – 1,600,000 buys – 2009 (Brock Lesnar)
2)) UFC 116: Lesnar vs Carwin – 1,116,000 buys (2010)
3) UFC 158: St-Pierre vs Diaz – 1,100,000 buys (2013)
* I stand corrected
4) (tied) UFC 66: Liddell vs Ortiz II – 1,050,000 buys (2006)
4) (tied) UFC 121: Lesnar vs Velasquez – 1,050,000 buys (2010)
6) UFC 91: Couture vs Lesnar – 1,010,000 buys (2008)
7) (tied) UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008 – 1,000,000 buys (2008)
7) (tied) UFC 148: Silva vs Sonnen II – 1,000,000 buys (2012)
Notice a trend in top 5 or 6?
http://www.mma-manifesto.com/ufc-ppv-data/top-selling-ufc-ppvs-of-all-time.html
Diego
Who in the world are you talking about? GSP and Fitch are constantly put down over their boring fights. Outside of the die hard Canadians he gets he’ll every fight. Until Fitch got released. Everyone hated his guts. FMJ is talented but he is boring. Also IMO he is cherry picking to hide his decline due to age. His style is dependent on speed and reflexes. To keep that advantage he is fighting bigger slower guys and coming in smaller than them. It’s why he avoided Pacman and anyone like him who is smaller who would have the speed to hit him and the speed to make him miss. Normally you can argue he is just fighting whoever is next in line. But as we saw with Pacman. That isnt the case.
Leon
Before FMJ fought Oscar he couldn’t sell Popsicles in the desert. You can’t tell what is going to happen down the road. Especially when everything is based on exposure and hype. We haven’t even seen the Fox deal get moving fully yet. The UFC is going to get exposure during the superbowl. All it takes is a fight to connect with the public. It could be in 6 months or 3 years.
PPVs are up this year and the UFC has many promising new champs.
Record breaking numbers in Mexico for the fight. 16.2 million average viewers for the two hour + telecast. 22.1 million average for the main event.
Record breaking numbers in the US as well. Over 150 million in PPV dollars so far reported. 2.2 million buys with outstanding distributors yet to report. This event will likely surpass the record in buys. Simply unreal the numbers that boxing can get. MMA will have to change the way they promote fights to reach such levels.
Ufc sucks.Dana white is a scumbag.