Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You

For Hatton, Floyd Will Unveil His Version of MMA:

By William Trillo
Foto Folly: Bret "The Threat" Newton
 

So okay, Floyd is coming out from his “retirement” home in casinos and strip joints, and instead of throwing hundred dollar bills around for people to scurry for like rats, he is going back to the ring to make some more big money to toss in the air. Easy money too. After his fight with Ricky Hatton, maybe he'll be showering the high class crowd at strip joints with crisp McKinleys.

There are still many questions surrounding this fight, but one fact is undeniable: who will promote this.

Although Floyd had been fighting out of Dan Goossen's company, for this fight Mayweather Promotions will team up with Golden Boy. For those of you who have not heard of Mayweather Promotions, the bulk of its clients are professional runners and dancers.

And Goossen won't be laying any golden eggs.

A check with several industry sources in a position to know reveals that Goossen does not have contracts, or paper, with several of his fighters. And oops -- that's right, Floyd is one.

In exchange for the privilege of fighting Oscar De La Hoya and earning a monster pay day in May, Oscar extracted from Floyd options on at least one future fight if not more, this one being the first.

As for the fight details on this mismatch at 147 pounds, they already have an HBO date, Dec. 8th, and the venue looks like it will be in Las Vegas. Floyd has talked about possibly going to England and fighting in the 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium, which could come close to a sellout. The money generated by that gate would be humongous, and Floyd's ego would swell at the sight of seeing so many fans who came out to see his Royal Lowness.

Actually, like with his fight against Oscar, fans will be coming out hoping to see him lose.

Of course that is not going to happen. Besides the fact that Floyd is the far bigger man, Hatton, a 140-pounder will come up to 147 again, where he barely beat Luis Collazo, if he beat him at all.

Floyd really doesn't even "fight" anymore. He puts on his own version of Mixed Martial Boxing, that are part fistic, part dance routine and part broken field running.

Floyd's visions of a mega PPV buy are so out of the box, he will get a much-needed dose of reality when the numbers come in.

Fact is, Floyd has only put up decent PPV numbers when his opponent was a draw: Gatti, Zab Judah, and of course Oscar.

Floyd's best showings prior to Oscar were 375,000 buys for Judah, and 325,000 for Carlos Baldomir. To put that in context, Shane Mosley's second fight with an obviously shot Fernando Vargas last year drew 350,000.

Now he is fighting a Brit nobody knows about in this country, except boxing writers and keen aficionados of The Sweet Science.

When Hatton fought Jose Luis Castillo in Vegas in June, the 19,5000 Thomas & Mack Center was well shy of filled. And of the 13,000 who paid to get in,10,000 were Brits who flew over to see their homeboy. The other 3,000 were Mexican-Americans, drawn by Castillo.

Hatton, who is 43-0, fought his first 40 fights in England, his last three here -- vs. Collazo, then the uninspiring bout with Juan Urango, and his hit-and-grab victory over Castillo. None were box office hits. Until Hatton does something big in the U.S., like beat Floyd, he will remain a mid to low-level draw, and without his Brit contingent, would slip into the lower echelon.

On the other side of the coin, while Floyd is the acknowledged pound-for-pound king, his last two fights had to turn off even those who paid just for the prospect of seeing him lose.

With Baldomir, he wore track, rather than boxing shoes. He refused to engage Baldy, choosing to stick and run for 12 incredibly boring rounds, the last two of which were not watched by about 2,000 fans that walked out, including some celebrities.

Against Oscar, it was more of the same. The only time he engaged Oscar was when Oscar skillfully cut off the ring and forced him to. And of course rather than slug it out like a fighter with real heart, Floyd did a Houdini as fast as he could.

The price for Oscar-Floyd was $54.95. Among the 2.15 million fans who bought the fight, how many who felt burned (almost all) by Floyd's tactics are going to shell out at least $49.95 to see him dance around a fighter nowhere nearly as skilled as Oscar.

And don't expect HBO to do a 24/7 for this fight. Sources tell us HBO's budget is maxed out, and it cost millions to do a 24/7. At best, a half-hour feature, with the intent of showing how Hatton is a regular Joe who hangs out with his buds and suds in Manchester.

Oscar has expressed some interest in fighting Hatton on his annual fight night, May 5. But the word on the street is Hatton did not want to wait, he wants the money now. Knowing Oscar, who threw out other fighters names to make Floyd fear he wouldn't get to milk the cash cow, Hatton may just be a negotiating ploy for the Big O's intended Puerto Rican targets Miguel Cotto or the retired Felix Trinidad.

So you can buzz like bees in a hive all you want about this fight, the fact is it will be a snoozefest.

Proceed at your own risk.