Promoters Turn To Scaled-Down Pay-per-view to Get Fighters in Ring
USA TODAY - January 15, 2003
Despite these hard economic times, boxing promoters still want to keep revenue flowing and their fighters fighting, so they're making quality matchups. But if you want to see them all, you'll have to pay.
With TV dates at such a premium, an explosion of pay-per-view offerings is imminent with promoters Bob Arum, Don King and Lou DiBella each set to launch a series of PPV events to make up for the date shortfall. There will be three, maybe four, in March alone, an unprecedented number.
HBO's budget is flat, and most of its dates are owed to the star fighters it has under contract. Showtime slashed its budget, meaning fewer slots. ESPN2 used to pay $60,000 a card. Now it's $52,500.
King already has March 1 for the $49.95 John Ruiz-Roy Jones heavyweight title bout, the sort of blockbuster event pay-per-view thrives on. But there are intriguing smaller fights to be made, too, so on March 15 he'll roll out the first of three $19.95-type cards this year.
''There ain't no TV dates, so you got to do your own thing,'' King said Tuesday. ''If Showtime and HBO don't want to do them, I'll do them on my own. We need new stars. You got to cultivate them, and you got to keep your guys busy. You do a pay-per-view to appeal to the fans, and if you get a hit, it's a good investment.''
Said Arum, ''If there were dates on Showtime and HBO and we could find a place for these fights, I would much prefer to do that. But I have no choice because there aren't. I can't just cry in the night about the lack of dates. I need to try to do something about it.''
King's first show features a super middleweight unification bout between Byron Mitchell and Sven Ottke, the division's biggest fight in years. It takes place in Germany, but King will air it on tape with live fights that could include the third junior flyweight title match between champ Rosendo Alvarez and Beibis Mendoza and another 108-pound title fight between Nene Sanchez and Victor Burgos.
Arum is close to completing a deal in which Showtime's PPV arm, SET, will produce, distribute and share profits from three $34.95 ''Latin Fury'' shows aimed at passionate Latino fans. Arum's deal also calls for three Showtime ''Latin Fury'' cards, which will probably commence in May with a flyweight unification bout between Eric Morel and Irene Pacheco.
Arum's first PPV show under the Showtime deal is a March 22 card at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas featuring three pick 'em fights: Jesus Chavez vs. junior lightweight titlist Sirimongkol Singmanassuk, ex-lightweight champ Jose Luis Castillo vs. Julio Diaz and strawweight champ Miguel Barrera vs. Roberto Leyva in their third match.
DiBella intends to do at least three Monday night $19.95 cards that HBO PPV will distribute. The first show, tentatively slated for March 17, will feature either junior featherweight titlist Oscar Larios or junior bantamweight champ Fernando Montiel along with lightweight Angel Manfredy and 2000 Olympian Jermain Taylor.
HBO PPV is talking to DiBella and King about linking their shows and selling them as a package.
''It's free enterprise,'' Arum said of the crush of PPV events. ''We know the drawing power of the people on our cards.''
Said King, Arum's chief rival for 30 years, ''We'll let the people decide what they want to see. We all got to do what we got to do.''
