How big might the upcoming super fight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford be? If we listen to former Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, the September fight will surpass the monster that was Floyd Mayweather Vs. Manny Pacquiao. The May 2015 fight brought in a staggering 4.6 million pay-per-view buys, this the current world record.
But Schaefer, who spoke with The Ring, says he truly believes the Canelo-Crawford fight can match those numbers or perhaps even eclipse them.
“I’ve been involved [in boxing] since 2000 so that is 25 years and I don’t remember any fight bigger than Canelo-Crawford. It’s going to be the biggest fight in the sport for as long as I can remember,” Schaefer said. “With Mayweather-Pacquiao, people hyped it up. It was a big success financially, but I think this can be equally as big of a success in that regard if not bigger. But I think Canelo-Crawford is a fight between two men truly in their prime.”
Is Schaefer delusional or just selling the fight?
While fans may feel Schaefer is going overboard when he says Canelo-Crawford could be as big or bigger than May/Pac, plenty more people will likely jump on his quote as far as Canelo, who is 35, and Crawford, who will be 38 in September, being “truly in their prime.”
The critics have been telling us that Canelo has not looked great in some time, that age, and a heck of a hefty bank balance, have caught up with him. Certainly, Canelo looked pretty bad against William Scull, with the Mexican star barely throwing any punches, not to mention not being able to cut the ring off too well.
Crawford is still fresh, and fast and sharp, but some people do point to his age as well. But aside from what type of a fight we will get when these two come together, can the upcoming fight really pull in over 4.6 million pay-per-view buys? That would be truly incredible, of course.
Bigger than Mayweather-Canelo? Schaefer doubles down
Schaefer has been around the sport as he says, and he has worked up close with stars like Mayweather. But is he guilty of exaggerating in a pretty big way here? Canelo-Crawford will be big, and it may break the magic 1 million mark as far as PPV buys go, but to top May/Pac, no way.
In terms of other big fights he has compared Canelo-Crawford to, Schaefer added that the September fight will also be “bigger than Mayweather-Canelo.” Schaefer co-promoted that fight, but he says he believes Canelo-Crawford will be “substantially bigger” than the fight that took place back in September of 2013. Mayweather-Canelo generated 2.2 million PPV buys.
Will Canelo-Crawford really outdo those numbers in a substantial fashion?
