Sunday, May 26, 2013

Some Comments Prompted by Carlo's Recent Boston Globe Article

One healthy development I've seen in recent years is regional interest in the second and third best guys in any given division, assuming they're fighting each other.  Both Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler were easily beaten by Andre Ward, yet their fight in London yesterday drew 19,000 fans.  If they have a 3rd fight, it'll do just as well.  Neither guy is a world beater, but they both give best effort, have styles that are complimentary, and wind up having good and unpredictable fights.  Maybe this wouldn't play out so lucratively on neutral ground, but in England or Denmark, it's a big deal.  Although it's true that they're not in Mayweather country for their payoffs, I'm sure they're still pulling in between two and three million each for the fights.  And what's interesting about them fighting each other is that they can probably make more money doing it than they could having rematches with Ward (since there'd be no drama beforehand about the possible outcome of the fights). What's even more interesting is that you get the sense that nobody really wants to have to fight Ward anyway, even though you can't call yourself the best between 168 and 175 unless you beat him.