The Catch-22 of Fandom

By Eddie Sanchez 

The customer is always right! This is a common phrase in the service industry, which represents that the paying customer’s opinion is of the utmost importance to a company. For boxing, as with all sports in the world, that customer is the common fan. 

The importance of a fan is magnified greatly within boxing and other combat sports because the most high-profile fights are fought on either PPV or a streaming platform which requires recurring payments. 

While fan opinion is clearly very important within the industry, one can not help but notice the common catch-22 that high-profile fighters face, most specifically, in regard to Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez, when selecting their opponents. 

One of the clearest examples of negative fan perception affecting the product followed the announcement of Mayweather v. Maidana I. Marcos Maidana was fresh off of a dominant beatdown of the once-undefeated Adrien Broner. The second round of that fight was a contender for round of the year, and Maidana kept his foot on the gas completely as he attacked Broner with his unconventional footwork and launch angles. 

Once Mayweather signed to fight Maidana however, there was much negative perception from the common fan. Here are some examples from a blog post published on February 24, 2014, within the comment section: 

“This fight is gonna be Mayweather-Gatti 2.0. Y’all wanted this fight and now you’ll reap what you sow…a boring one-sided fight. I love watching Mayweather but this will not be exciting.”

“This fight is about who is less dangerous. Maidana has zero shot of beating Floyd. Too slow. Just another boring, one-sided fight.”

“Maidana probably deserves it more than Khan given their more recent fights, but MAIDANA WILL BE HITTING AIR ALL NIGHT. I’d pay for the Mayweather-Khan PPV because it will be a more challenging fight for Mayweather (i.e., Khan’s speed). Mayweather-Maidana? I’ll pass…” 

As you can see, the common perception was that Maidana was a gross mismatch and had no business fighting Mayweather. The fans were calling on Khan as his opponent (LOL) and I believe this perception, which seeped into the media, negatively impacted PPV buys. This fight sold to 900,000 homes, his lowest total in five years at the time, and subpar for his incredibly high standard. 

The irony is this turned out to be one of Mayweather’s most exciting fights! They even signed off on an immediate rematch later that year. This fight was so exciting because it was the first time since he became “Money” that someone came forward and attacked Mayweather unconventionally. Maidana bum-rushed him and attempted to rough him up in the clinch, and did not shy away following offical separations.

To have the fan perception be so negative before the fight, shift completely to a welcoming narrative in response to their immediate rematch, is evidence that fans need to take a collective breath and analyze beyond an opponent’s record. 

This criticism is not unique to Mayweather. Canelo has long faced this form of fan critique despite being recognized as someone who welcomed challengers. He fought Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara when he could have easily avoided them for example. 

Shortly after knocking out Kovalev, which fans criticized as an opponent despite the fact that Canelo moved up 25 pounds to fight him, Canelo was preeminently criticized in his search for his next opponent. When there were rumors of a potential Canelo-Murata fight (which I concede would be driven for business reasons to secure DAZN subscribers in Japan), many of the comments were calling for a potential Callum Smith or Billy Joe Saunders fight. 

Once the Murata plan was scrapped and it was rumored that Smith and Saunders were the top two in contention, there were comments stating how they are not real competitors and will be ‘no challenge’ for the Mexican great. 

This commentary is damaging to a sport that often struggles to gain fans of the younger generations. Compounded with PPV and streaming service prices, you will be hard-pressed to find a casual “on-the-fence” fan that would fork over hard-earned money to view a fight card that seemingly generates vast amounts of criticism. These potential fans may not realize that negative commentary is unfortunately normal and is often driven by biases.

Bob Arum, the legendary Top Rank promoter, suggested to Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix that the industry is at a point where PPV prices should be lowered to $40. It is his hypothesis that slashing the cost in half would help motivate an uncommitted buyer toward a PPV purchase. 

While I think that this suggestion would certainly help, it is my conclusion that the more educated fans should remain aware of the industry makeup and share appreciation towards fighters like Canelo, or any fighter on that level. It is impossible to please everyone and often there are industry politics or network motivations that would direct a fighter one way or another.

Am I giving fighters like Canelo too much benefit of the doubt? What are your thoughts on fandom’s impact on the industry?

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