By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
This year’s “fight of the century” in Las Vegas — Saturday’s rematch between middleweight stars Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez — is lacking face-offs, drama, TV ads and high-powered promotion.
It appears the promoters of Canelo and GGG are banking on the buzz from last September’s controversial draw between the two fighters to drive ticket sales and PPV buys.
“For all of its mega fight billing, this match sorely missed a bankable front man. One capable of selling a promotion of this magnitude,” said Las Vegas’ Cassandra Cousineau, The Sportsnista radio personality on NBC Sports radio 920AM in Las Vegas. “Real fight fans may not blink at $85 for PPV. But super fights aren’t getting that buy-in of the usual demographics. They need it to be a spectacle that viewers build their weekend around being posted in their living rooms.”
At Wednesday’s press conference, Canelo in a suit and tie and GGG in a warm-up suit did not look at each let alone face off for photo opps. They heard, like everyone else at the KA Theater at MGM Grand, that the fight at T-Mobile Arena is sold out and PPV will cost $85.
In a town that bills itself as the world’s fight capital, the fight week’s promotion has sizzled at a very low flame for Canelo-GGG2. If you recall, the September fight a year ago was a spectacular old-fashion slugfest, but it did not draw all the attention it deserved because the fight was staged the month after the Mayweather-McGregor boxing spectacle/mega cash grab/media show in August 2017.
That said, there were 22,000 bodies in the building for Canelo-GGG a year ago, including more than 17,300 ticket-paying boxing fans who generated gate revenues of more than $27 million — good for third all-time in Nevada behind Mayweather-Pacquiao and Mayweather-McGregor.
Tom Loeffler, GGG’s promoter, said the fight will be watched in more than 160 nations and has the international pizzazz of a World Cup soccer match.
Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions president, said fans “were very thirsty for more and this Saturday they’ll get round 13.”
The monster rematch is one day ahead of NASCAR’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday, though there’s probably not much of an overlap of those demographics. Sunday is Mexican Independence Day — an Mexicans in Las Vegas on Sunday are hoping to also celebrate a Canelo win.
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Mega boxing events are big business for the Strip. MGM Resorts International, for example, will have most of its hotels near T-Mobile Arena near capacity or full occupancy.
MGM Resorts gave this statement to LVSportsBiz.com: “This weekend’s rematch between Canelo and GGG is drawing interest from around the world. The fight provides us with an opportunity to showcase our entertainment offerings to a global audience. Demand is high and we anticipate our resorts being at or near capacity on both Friday and Saturday.”
Compared to other sports fans who visit Las Vegas, boxing fans spend the most, according to a graphic that was part of an MGM Resorts analyst report.
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