During the Super Bowl festivities in Miami a few days ago, the Grand Rapids native vigorously criticized Pacquiao for not taking what he called ‘a 25-million dollar drug test’ in a public conversation with Hollywood actor Jamie Foxx.
Again at the same event but this time in an interview with Fox Sports’ Mark Kriegel, the flamboyant boxer said that while he agreed on Pacquiao’s clause to pay 10 million dollar for every pound in excess of the welterweight limit of 147 pounds, the Filipino refused his random blood testing demand.
This same criticism on Pacquiao was again uttered by Mayweather in Dallas during the NBA All-Star Weekend.
It is now clear to me that hyping up the fight with Shane Mosley is not Mayweather’s priority. Money Mayweather’s into something else.
Indeed ballyhoos wouldn't work on a fight that’s a decade overdue. Fiery words had long been spewed. The fire after burning for a very long time has died out. While the ash that's left can still glow brightly, it can never be set ablaze again.
To me, Mayweather’s recent series of attacks at Pacquiao is planned to create more pay-per-view (PPV) buys and bring more fans to MGM Grand Garden on May 1. I’m not talking about Mayweather fans, not Mosley fans either, but Pacquiao fans.
It’s a clever plan.
Although Mayweather is a draw, just like he needed Oscar de la Hoya and Ricky Hatton, he still needs a ‘dancing partner’ to be able to get a good PPV number. Unfortunately for him this time, Shane Mosley isn’t a good partner.
Mosley’s fight against mediocre David Estrada in 2005 did only 225K buys. In 2006 against a more popular Mexican-American in Fernando Vargas, he only made an average of 380K buys in two fights. Clearly, Mosley isn’t a draw.
Mayweather (or someone in his camp) is aware of the fact that though his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez generated 1.05M buys, Marquez’s Mexican followers had something to do with this figure. He knows that if he was to exceed 1M buys once more, he’d need Hispanic fans to buy his fight.
And Manny Pacquaio has now plenty of these fans.
Mayweather is now chasing after Pacquiao fans like a sly salesman, trying to sell them the Mosley fight using his clever ‘watch my fight to see me lose’ sales strategy by portraying his usual but effective villain role.
But Mayweather-Mosley fight even without promotional antics will still do very well in PPV buys. It’s just one of those big fights that every boxing fan clamors to watch.
Although Pacquiao fights are very seldom boring and are usually fun to watch, Pacquiao-Clottey fight however, might not do as good as Mayweather-Mosley for two reasons: (1) Clottey is a relatively unknown fighter, and (2) Antonio Margarito is out of ‘The Event’. Humberto Sotto and David Diaz won’t help sell PPV buys; neither will Alfonso Gomez and over the hill Jose Luis Castillo.
So when you hear Mayweather slams Pacquiao over random blood testing or whatever, don't be surprised because the two are still fighting, not in the ring, but for PPV buys. And whoever wins this fight will surely gain a significant edge on the negotiating table before they eventually square off for a real fight in the squared circle.
(Marshall N. B., marx7204@lycos.com)
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