Two of boxing’s current
superstars, Floyd “Money” Mayweather and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, will hit the
road starting Monday, June 24 for an 11 city media tour in two countries to
promote their upcoming world championship fight in Las Vegas on September 14.
Let the hype begin.
All of the tour dates are open
to the public. The specific locations and times haven’t been announced as of
publication. We’ll update them as they become available.
Monday, June 24 - New York
City
Tuesday, June 25 - Washington,
DC
Wednesday, June 26 - Grand
Rapids, Michigan (AM) / Chicago, Illinois (PM)
Thursday, June 27 - Atlanta
Friday, June 28 - Miami
Sunday, June 30 - Mexico City
Monday, July 1 - San Antonio
(AM) / Houston (PM)
Tuesday, July 2 - Phoenix (AM)
/ Los Angeles (PM)
Grand Rapids is Mayweather’s
hometown, hence the reason for the stop on the tour. The location is rumored to
be Ottawa High School, which Mayweather attended and where he held a news
conference in 2007.
This is by far the biggest
boxing media event to ever hit Phoenix. San Antonio, Texas is coming on as a
major boxing venue; thousands came out to see the weigh-in for Alvarez against
Austin Trout in April. It’s good to see for the health of the sport.
Fight fans, if you’ve never
been to a big championship prize fight in person or any of these media events,
do yourself a favor. Get your friends together, pack the kids in the car and
get there. Not everyone can afford a ringside seat, or even put down the money
for pay-per-view. This is a way to see two great boxers and world class
athletes up close with your own eyes, not through a TV camera. Mayweather is
the world’s best paid athlete; Alvarez is arguably one of Mexico’s greatest
sports stars. Both are undefeated.
Admission to each stop will be
free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. People line up
several hours in advance to see the free public weigh-ins, so don’t be late.
Often the fighters, trainers,
other team members and famous friends as well as other boxers who happen to
show up will pose for photos and sign autographs for fans. And even though most
of the news conference remarks are usually pretty well scripted out, sometimes
the fighters start getting under each other’s skin after a few stops. Maybe
someone’s in the mood for a little trash talk. Things might get a little tense
and boil over during the faceoffs and poses. You never know.
Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy
Promotions, Mayweather Promotions and Showtime hope the tour will follow in the
footsteps of the successful 11-city media tour staged in 2007 for De La Hoya’s
bout with Mayweather. The fight set nearly every money record in boxing that
still stands:
Biggest payday in boxing history for two
fighters in one bout. Mayweather made $25 million and De La Hoya made $52
million.
Ticket sales hit a live gate record of $19
million at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, the same venue as the
Mayweather-Alvarez fight.
The fight broke all pay-per-view records,
with 2.45 million buys and $136,853,700 in U.S. revenue.
The fight made a total of $165 million
gross revenue, the richest fight ever.
De La Hoya became the all-time leader in
pay-per-view sales with this fight, 12.8 million buys over his career.
De La Hoya says he wouldn’t
mind a bit if his records were broken by Mayweather and Alvarez, and why should
he? As the promoter he gets a big bite of this rich pie.
“Gayle Falkenthal for Communities at
WashingtonTimes.com” is credited for the story.
(Source)
