2014: a look at some of the business issues in boxing

MMA Payout takes a quick review of 2014 in the sport of boxing.

2014 was an interesting year for the sport as boxing began to expand with more PPVs than the standard Pacquiao and Mayweather bi-yearly events.

Canelo Alvarez faced Alfredo Angulo in March (the event drew an impressive 350,000 PPV buys), Sergio Martinez faced Miguel Cotto in New York in June (although projected to score 475,000 PPV buys, it drew just an estimated 350,000) and Alvarez returned in July to headline a PPV with Erislandly Lara (it drew an estimated 300,000 PPV buys).  There were also hints of Gennady Golovkin fighting on PPV although that never came to fruition.

Floyd Mayweather fought Marcos Maidana twice this year.  After May’s Mayweather PPV (in which it reportedly drew 900,000 PPV buys), Showtime President Stephen Espinoza informed the media that it would no longer release PPV buy numbers unless the event sets a PPV record.   However, after the second fight in September, it was revealed that the rematch drew 925,000 PPV buys.

Manny Pacquiao’s days as a PPV draw seem to be waning.  Although his rematch with Tim Bradley drew an estimated 750-800K PPV buys, it was down from the near 900K PPV buys in their first fight.  Although nothing official has been released, the Manny Pacquiao-Chris Algieri fight in November drew between 300,000 to 400,000 PPV buys depending on who you asked.  If this number is correct, it’s a huge drop off for Pacquiao.  This would be a likely reason why the push for the mythical matchup with Floyd Mayweather.

In October, ESPN’s Dan Rafael posted the top events in 2014 thus far.  Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Brian Vera 2 drew 1.39 million viewers with a peak of 1.53 million.  The ratings were for only that fight and not the entire card airing on HBO.  HBO dominated the top rated boxing events on cable (premium and/or regular) and Showtime did not crack the top 10.  Still, the competition between the two premium cable channels seemed to heat up in 2014.

With the Kovalev-Hopkins fight, we may see the cold war between Top Rank and Golden Boy softening.  Yet, Al Haymon still is one of the unseen, most powerful men in the business.

There were several notable lawsuits in 2014.

First, Main Events Promotions, the promoter for Sergey Kovalev sued Al Haymon, Golden Boy, boxer Adonis Stevenson and others for backing out of a potential fight between Kovalev and Stevenson.  The lawsuit was dismissed as the parties settled when Kovalev got his big fight against Bernard Hopkins. 

Next, Andre Ward lost a California State Athletic Commission arbitration hearing this past spring against his promoter Goosen Tutor Promotions.  Ward then turned around and sued him in Federal Court alleging violations of the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act.

Mikey Garcia sued Top Rank alleging issues with his contract including violations of the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act.  The lawsuit was transferred to Nevada as Garcia originally filed in California.

Don King was found in breach of contract when his fighter failed a drug test for an event in Russia in 2014.

In addition to these lawsuits, there were major shakeups at Golden Boy with former CEO Richard Schaefer leaving Golden Boy.  But, it appears to be a messy divorce with Golden Boy seeking $50 million in private arbitration.

Just like MMA, 2015 should be an interesting year for boxing.