By Norm Frauenheim
Canelo Alvarez’s jump to HBO from Showtime isn’t surprising. He follows Bernard Hopkins, who took the first step in a move that altered the business landscape with his decision to fight Sergey Kovalev on November 8. It’s hard to know what will happen next. A prediction is a fool’s exercise, especially with unresolved questions about who and how many fighters are under contract to Golden Boy Promotions and/or Al Haymon. But it’s safe to say it’s been a tough couple of weeks for Floyd Mayweather Jr., who suffered a fat lip on Sept. 13 against Marcos Maidana and then had his credibility trashed in an appearance before the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
The announcement about Canelo’s move to HBO and Mayweather’s appearance in front the of the commission happened on the same, Tuesday. Coincidence? Probably. Still, you have to wonder. This is boxing, after all. It’s a place where coincidence and conspiracy often mean the same thing. Let’s just say that Canelo and HBO celebrated while Mayweather and Showtime squirmed.
There was reason to celebrate the Canelo side of the equation.
It further paved the way for a Canelo-Miguel Cotto fight, probably next year, in a bout as big as any in the tradition of the great Puerto Rican-Mexican rivalry. It resurrected a chance at an all-Mexican showdown between Canelo and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. showdown, although there are doubts about whether Chavez Jr. will ever get his act together long enough to be a reliable partner in any potential venture. It even generated talk about Canelo-Manny Pacquiao, but that one looks unlikely because of the weight disparity. Canelo is growing out of the 154-pound weight class and Pacquiao is considering a move down the scale, from 147 to a more natural 140.
What it took off the table, however, was just another blow for Mayweather and Showtime on an already difficult day. Forget a Canelo-Mayweather rematch. With two fights left on Mayweather’s landmark deal with Showtime, an encore with Canelo had to be at least a consideration. With 2.2 million pay-per-view customers, Mayweather’s majority decision over Canelo set revenue records. For the fighter who calls himself Money, that was the primary reason to do it one more time. Given ho-hum pay-per-view results for the other three fights on his Showtime contract — fewer than one million PPV for Robert Guerrrero and twice for Maidana, the network would have been happy to go back to the Canelo bank.
It’s hard to know exactly where Mayweather and Showtime go now. In his post-fight news conference after his rematch victory over Maidana, Mayweather suggested that he might take off a year, skipping his resumed May date for a fight next September. With talk about an imminent split between him and promotional partner Leonard Ellerbe, that looks to be as likely as any other possibility. Some quiet time might be the only option for Mayweather. The more he talks, the less believable he becomes. If the emperor has no clothes, the pound-for-pound king has no credibility. He said he had a personal goal of knocking out Maidana in the rematch, yet he danced away from the opportunity in the 12th round. He said he had no relationship with controversial conditioning coach Alex Ariza before opening bell and then Ariza tells Filipino media that he has signed a two-year contract with Mayweather.
At the Nevada hearing, he embarrassed Showtime by saying sequences shown on All-Access were staged. Don’t believe, he said, sequences showing 31-minute rounds of sparring in the so-called Dog House at his Las Vegas gym and of women smoking what was assumed to be marijuana at his home.
“That’s all for the reality show,” Mayweather attorney Shane Emerick told the regulator board. “It does not happen.”
Huh? Reality is the new fantasy, or vice versa, or some thing like that.
Then again, maybe there’s a chance at some good news in the Mayweather mess too. Now, more than ever, he needs Pacquiao to restore his credibility. Question is, does he really care about that? If he doesn’t, he might retire unbeaten, but with a legacy defined by Pacquiao, Antonio Margarito, Kostya Tszyu, Sergio Martinez, Paul Williams and everybody else he didn’t fight.
