Max Kellerman, who is back working a big fight again, this after having been let got by the folks at ESPN a while back, says the fight he will call in September will be “the most-watched championship fight in almost 50 years.” Kellerman is of course referring to the fight that has been dubbed “Once in a Lifetime,” between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.
Speaking with The Ring, Kellerman said that as the September 13th fight in Las Vegas is going out on Netflix, it will do enormous numbers as far as armchair fans go.
“Because of Netflix, this will be the most watched championship fight in almost 50 years,” Kellerman said. “Muhammad Ali fought Leon Spinks in the rematch in 1978 and they did 90 million TV sets. Ninety million, and since then, what has even come close? The biggest fights have all been on pay-per-view, and they do two million buys, three, four million buys. If five people per buy watch [a fight], that’s 20 million people. This is going to do multiples of that.”
Big numbers guaranteed, big action? Not so much
There seems to be no doubt Canelo-Crawford will be a massive hit due to it going out on Netflix, but bottom line, most fans, though they may be somewhat impressed by big numbers and also proud to be able to tell their buddies how big their beloved sport of boxing is, only really care about the quality of the action.
Canelo-Crawford will generate millions of views along with millions of dollars in revenue, but will it prove to be a good fight, even a great fight? That’s something nobody can predict, not with any degree of certainty, anyway.
Will Canelo-Crawford be another Mayweather-Pacquiao dud?
We can only hope both warriors fight their best and give us a special fight in Vegas in September. Canelo-Crawford will deliver at the Box-Office, but will the fight deliver in the action stakes?
Fans of course still remember how dreadfully dull the monster pay-per-view smash that was Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao was. That fight still holds the PPV record, but who didn’t feel let-down by the action that night in 2015?
