By Norm Frauenheim–
May is a month projected to be the new beginning, a comeback from business in a bubble.
First, Canelo Alvarez in a fight for another super-middleweight belt against Billy Joe Saunders May 8 at the Raiders new stadium in Las Vegas. Then, Jose Ramirez and Josh Taylor on May 22 in a junior-welterweight fight for the unified title and perhaps a piece of history.
It’s an ambitious return from killer COVID. It’s a reason, a season, for cautious optimism. Filled seats instead of empty ones, faces instead of cardboard cutouts and real cheers-jeers instead of artificial noise are all part of that light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
Everybody can get a jab in May, President Biden promises. Hopefully, everybody can begin to watch and hear jabs thrown from seats they purchased. But caution lingers. The pandemic has its own counters, so-called variants, a euphemism for what they really are. They’re mutants, unpredictable and ominous.
So, make that May, as in maybe.
Expect sellouts, yet no capacity crowds. Socially-distancing figures to still be in place in about every locale other than Texas and Florida. But it’s a beginning, the next step back to where we left it.
In effect, boxing, as we knew it, came to an abrupt end on Feb. 22, 2020 in front of a roaring crowd at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand for Tyson Fury’s wild stoppage of Deontay Wilder in a heavyweight rematch. Since then it’s been live streams, Zooms and pay-per-view.
There have been a few lessons too. Start with pay-per-view. Pre-pandemic, it was what every fighter wanted. They wanted to be a PPV fighter. They still do. Teofimo Lopez values that acronym next to his name as much as any acronym-named belt. Post-pandemic, however, PPV might have lost its value.
During the pandemic, PPV simply became another way of saying that no network or advertiser is willing to pay for this schlock. Example: Chris Arreola-Andy Ruiz (FOX) on April 24 is PPV; Ramirez-Taylor (ESPN) is not.
The pandemic turned the PPV model on its head. It’s lousy advertising. Maybe, that changes. But it won’t until the business can figure out how much the landscape has changed.
Back to business, whatever that looks like, will include some new stars and some of the same old suspects. Start with the stars, Lopez and Oscar Valdez.
Lopez won the most significant fight of the Pandemic with his decision over former pound-for-pound king Vasiliy Lomachenko in October. Valdez won the Pandemic’s most dramatic bout with an upset stoppage of feared junior-lightweight Miguel Berchelt a couple of weeks ago.
They were the biggest winners, although Lopez might have created problems for himself in the wake of his game-changing upset of Lomachenko. He is feuding with Top Rank, the promotional entity that lost the purse bid for his lightweight title defense against Australian George Kambosos to Triller, which is coming off its PPV biggie – the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. exhibition.
Lopez told The Ak and Barak Show on Sirius XM that he might split with Top Rank after two more fights. This is the same Lopez who has said he’s probably moving up the scale, from lightweight to junior-welterweight. He has talked about how wants to fight the winner of Ramirez-Taylor, both Top Rank fighters. He might have a tough time reaching a deal with an ex-promoter, Bob Arum, still angry at losing the purse bid. Words create headlines and consequences.
Meanwhile, Lopez’ fight with Kambosos is interesting, mostly because Kambosos is Manny Pacquiao’s ex-sparring partner. There’s also a caveat. It’s a mandatory, which suffered as much as PPV. Canelo’s third-round stoppage of Avni Ylidirim last Saturday was a mandatory title defense. Caleb’s Plant’s decision over Caleb Truax in January was mandatory. Both were forgettable. Mandatories should be too.
If Lopez beats Kambosos as expected, however, there’s bound to be speculation about a bout with Pacquiao, a small welterweight probably more comfortable at 140 pounds. Pacquiao’s durable celebrity has already attracted a long line of wannabe opponents. Terence Crawford, Ryan Garcia and Conor McGregor have all been rumored.
The latest to put himself in line is Mikey Garcia, who was quoted this week as saying a deal is near. But it’s all speculation until Pacquiao, himself, says something definitive. Until then, I’ll wait to hear from Triller that it will stage another exhibition, a Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather sequel.
Just kidding. Then again, Maybe not.
