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Hatton became somewhat known in U.S. boxing circles after his fight with Floyd, and imo he was the reason why Pac-Cotto did 800,000+ ppv fights (there are a lot of British expats in the US also), De La Hoya was the main reason why DLH-Pac did 1.3 million buys not Pac. Pac by his name alone against other fighters did very poor numbers, I forgot what the exact ppv numbers were for Pac-Marquez 2, Pac-Mab 2, Pac-Morales 1-3, but they all did poor sales for an alleged superstar. Pac is a superstar in boxing, but that's it, he doesn't have widespread appeal to the American general public, same with Cotto, the Cotto-Pac fight may not even do 500,000 PPVs.
See here is the thing.
Why do people see "casual" fans as a negative?
When we all got into boxing we were casual fans as compared to the others who watched boxing for years and it was usually one boxer that got us into it that we started watching. Not everyone who watches boxing can be in it for years because eventually you need to bring in new viewers.
People need to stop trying to monopolize boxing in what they want it to be and when it isn't they call it a bad sign. Why? Because it isn't your vision of what boxing should be? Start thinking of boxing as a business, as a business it knows that we can't be there forever, the people that watched it for years cannot be the ONLY number or demographic tuning into boxing, if boxing counted on only us it would be screwed. Boxing NEEDS to bring in new viewers asap to keep business running smoothly.
That is why both Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are so important to boxing, because they bring in many casual boxing fans, sure some can be annoying to us that have watched boxing for years because of their lack of understanding of things, but regardless, it is what boxing needs.
Boxing needs to bring in more casual fans and Mayweather has done a WONDERFUL job of doing that. He branched out to other venues during his retirement getting his name out there and putting boxing wherever he was concerned back on the map. And I must say he couldn't have picked a more perfect time.
You should have seen the internet, we had so many journalists, come even claiming they worked for boxing sites(now working for MMA sites) saying how boxing is dead and Mayweather couldn't revive it and all this other crap and cra. But you know what, thanks to those casual viewers, Boxing just got 1 mill in PPV buys proving it isnt and shutting any detractors up and we have Mayweather and his genius of a marketing mind do that.
Whether you like it or not Mayweather brings in a lot of casual fans nowadays and apparently more then Pacquiao does. Whether or not you see it as a bad sign is irrelevant, boxing NEEDS more casual viewers to get into the sport as a whole if they want to keep business going and that's just how it is.
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Of course boxing needs casual viewers to replenish and build their fan base, but most of the young talent isn't shown enough on regular local tv or basic cable, it seems that the premium channels like HBO and Showtime have monopolize this for years. I remember 10 years ago I saw Juan Manuel Marquez fighting on local tv, I still remember when Tyson came out of prison and his fight against Buster Mathis was shown on regular Fox channel. Boxing needs to do things like that like have good talent on regular local tv or have the one really good fight to reach an wider audience. Yes we do have the internet, but tv is also important. I mean other sports like MLB, NBA, NFL, you can watch their best talents for free, but boxing you have to pay at least some sort of service to watch them. WHich is a bad business model to attract those casual viewer who will then become hardcore fans.
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Boxing has gone along way since the days of Barry McGuigan getting 19 million viewers fighting Eusebio Pedroza in a soccer stadium.
What number is Floyd on the list of actual viewers? Pretty lowdown I would have thought.
I know it's true largely because of Pay Per View I'll doubt we'll ever see a big fight wit 19 million viewers ever again! unless boxing goes back to free to air television stations permanently! A new business model is required, if only there was a way to get rid of PPV fights boxing could easily become one of the most successful sports again as it's not that people find it not entertaining it's that it is not accessible.
I mean in england they had Prem Plus which was a Pay Per View Soccer/ Football channel soccer is the national sport and this channel still flopped! people already pay subscriptions for their satelite or cable they do not want to pay an additional fee for a sport.
Pay Per View is Killing Boxing! this doesn't detract from the fact that Floyd is clearly the biggest draw in the current climate.
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