I think the important thing to keep in mind is that "having character" does not necessarily mean you're a jerk; it could mean that you're a nice guy, much like ODLH or Pacman. PBF doesn't seem to know how to do anything but be obnoxious once he steps outside the ring. While I can't fault his boxing skills, I can say he would be the last one in the boxing world that I would like to share a meal with.

The problem with the ODLH/Pacman match is you've got two very similar characters getting in the ring together - they've both fought their way to the top, have a vision for life after boxing, and believe that they need to help out the less fortunate along the way. There s no reason for these two to fight, other than money. There are plenty of other fights for Pacman, fights that could advance his career, and ODLH doesn't need to fight anymore, his career is nearly over.

I think this quote really does sum it up well -

Quote Originally Posted by Violent Ds Next Baby Mama View Post
And my opinion on this thread is, if the right matchups are made, you don't need a bunch of characters to force feed us a bunch of crap to sell a fight.

Did we need trash talk to sell us Cotto/Margarito? No, because is was the right matchup.
I have to agree with this. Sometimes, you just KNOW that a fight is going to be a good one. That the fighters are well matched, or that fighter A has a grudge against fighter B. And if that's there, you don't need to generate the PBF style hype to sell the PPVs.

Fess up - who got the PPV for the too-short Pacman-Morales fight just because there was a grudge to settle? As soon as the fight was scheduled, we decided to get it. The promise of a good fight was there, no hype needed. (Or, at least it was until you saw the fight, right? But by then, your money was in and it was just too late.)

Taylor-Pavlik II? It was a fight we all wanted to see. And both fighters had a lot of character, they both had strong personalities and a desire to win.

Calzaghe-Jones? After Hopkins took Hatton, we all wanted to see if Roy would do the same to Joe, even Joe's fans were biting their nails after Hopkins-Hatton. And all four of these fighters have character, too.

It's sort of like the baseball movie quote - If you build it, they will come.

If they build the better fights, we will come.

Without the hype.
Because they won't need it.