Maybe Mayweather Will Fight MMA

by Kid Nate on Dec 22, 2007 11:41 AM EST in News Comment 5 comments

So when I first read the ESPN report that Mark Cuban had sweet talked his "Dancing With the Stars" buddy Floyd Mayweather into considering trying his hand at MMA on Cuban's HDNet Fights, I was sceptical.

Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's adviser and best friend, told ESPN.com Friday night that the five-division world champion, who generated 3.25 million pay-per-view buys and more than $200 million in revenue in two mega fights in 2007, came away from a Thursday meeting with Cuban giving serious thought to taking his game and considerable drawing power to MMA.

"It's definitely something he is interested in, and when Floyd makes his move, obviously it's going to be a mega event," Ellerbe said. "We don't have a timetable. Floyd is taking some time off, but Floyd understands what is involved. You have to take time to go out and understand what you're getting involved in, and he's ready to do that. But it's something he's definitely interested in doing.

But then when I read Fightlinker's take on it, I reconsidered.

Big news of the morning is that Floyd Mayweather has been talking to Mark Cuban about getting into MMA. And by talking about it, I mean he is announcing it to the press and Mark Cuban is trying to turn it into a big platform to promote HDNet fights. Look, we all know that Mayweather getting into MMA has to be the dumbest thing we've ever heard. The guy's got glass hands using boxing gloves, so just think about what would happen after one punch using MMA gloves. A single takedown would probably result in his shoulders and back disintegrating into a pile of dust.

So why the hell is he talking about this? Press. Mark Cuban gets press for HDNet fights, and Mayweather comes across to the average yokel as being willing to prove himself in MMA if only the money were `good enough'. Oh if only. People who are picking up on this story like there's any kind of possibility or truth to it are morons, and they've swallowed the fake promotion hook, line, and sinker.

That last line was the key. You see -- Ryan at Fightlinker, for all his wit and astuteness as a fight analyst isn't in on the Kayfabe.

Sure Mayweather would likely be a disaster as an MMA fighter. But it's not like he's considering taking some fights in the Extreme Fighting Championship and if those go well working his way up to the WEC and from there, if all goes well, scrabbling his way up the UFC ladder from prelims to the main event like Jon Fitch did.

Mayweather's talking about doing one highly touted match for boucoups moneys and mad publicity. In all likliehood he'd fight a can or a completely one-dimensional grappler. Cuban and Mayweather split the fat dollars and Floyd goes back to boxing even richer and with even more fame than he had before. With De La Hoya gone, Mayweather needs to become the face of boxing. So far he's just been the heel, but the very disappointing numbers of his match against Hatton show that he's not even 40% of the PPV draw on his own that De La Hoya was.

Raising the hype stakes and doing several rounds of mainstream media in the buildup to a Mark Cuban promoted MMA match is just what Mayweather needs to become a real draw on his own, not just a foil. He's got to have watched the career of George Foreman and seen how Foreman went from feared rival of Joe Frazier and Ali to America's favorite fatman and extended his career 15 years extra.

Mayweather's 30, he's cleared the field in boxing. There is no one on the horizon with the star power to make another De La Hoya/Mayweather payday. Doing an overhyped jaunt into MMA would be a win for Mayweather's boxing career, Mark Cuban's HDNet Fights and a mixed blessing for MMA.

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Re: Maybe Mayweather Will Fight MMA

Gotta agree with Fightlinker here, this is never happening. The downside is huge for Floyd, who can easily make 20 million + whenever he wants for Boxing, and has a huge rematch with De La Hoya waiting in the wings.

I think it'll just be a way to keep himself in the news while he takes time off. I think people are vastly overestimating the amount of money this will draw for a smalltime HDnet show against a nobody. If it was a big UFC production against a top name, sure, but this would just be throwing away money. Floyd is just not going to risk injury or being embarrassed like this, he can't be that dumb

by Michael Rome on Dec 22, 2007 3:16 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Maybe Mayweather Will Fight MMA

I think Mayweather may look at this as an avenue for delving into being a Promoter and /or Fight Manager. In the interview after the Hatton fight he said he wanted to look into being being a Promoter and Cuban alludes to this possibly being an alternative for Mayweather if he doesn't do an MMA fight. He might see MMA as a growth area for Promotion/Fighter Mgmt, as opposed to trying to do the same in boxing. If he goes into that for boxing he will have to either compete against DLH or work under him, something his ego probably won't allow.

by robnashville on Dec 22, 2007 3:41 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Maybe Mayweather Will Fight MMA

You might be the only person in the world who would describe an early estimate of 850,000 buys for Mayweather-Hatton as "very disappointing." 1.5 million being Golden Boy's "expectation" was a little on the high side. Personally, I thought they might do a million, but 850K is still a little over two times the general high mark of success for a boxing PPV these days.

850,000 was taken as pretty good news by those of us who didn't have pipe dream fantasies of Mayweather suddenly being the best draw ever, given that it is the biggest number for any fight, ever, that didn't have Oscar, Tyson or Holyfield.

Bad Left Hook
Camden Chat

by SC on Dec 22, 2007 5:06 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Maybe Mayweather Will Fight MMA

well, depends if they budgeted and made payouts based on their internal expectation of 1.5 million. I'm sure the payouts are contingent, though. They did a lower than expected number in the States but seemed to more than make up for it in the UK. I hear they did a million buys over there, which is great based on fewer households to draw on. That would be like a US PPV doing 5 million buys. Not sure how that translates as far as money generated since i don't know the pricing structure for the brits, what kind of split there is between the ppv companies and promotion, etc. Significant $$$ how ever you slice it.

by robnashville on Dec 22, 2007 5:28 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Maybe Mayweather Will Fight MMA

Honestly, the only people that look at 850K in the States as low had some absurd expectations, and Golden Boy saying 1.5 million was to hype this as a super event -- which it was, either way. 1.5 million is 100K higher than Oscar-Tito in '99. Hatton was a totally unproven PPV commodity.

Dan Rafael called the 850K number a "smashing success," and I thought it was, too. Again, I thought they might have done a million. I would've maybe placed a small wager on that and lost. But 1.5? I would've never bet on that. I don't think anyone else really would have, either. The 2.4 million that Oscar-Floyd did was outrageous -- that was Oscar-Tito and Oscar-Hopkins (his two biggest PPV fights coming in) combined.

Either way, I really look at Floyd (with a good opponent) as a serious PPV force now. Only a select number of Oscar's fights did better numbers than Floyd-Hatton (v. Floyd, v. Tito, v. Hopkins, v. Mosley II, v. Vargas and v. Mayorga in his comeback bout in a fight that was promoted perfectly). Mayweather has come into his own as a star.

Nate is right in that Floyd won't ever do 2.4 million again, but that could be said for any possible matchup in boxing. Nobody's doing 2 million again for a long, long time. It's not much of a knock, I don't think.

Bad Left Hook
Camden Chat

by SC on Dec 22, 2007 6:12 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs