Ring Observer Boxing by Scoop Malinowski
By Scoop Malinowski
Rumors are floating that Floyd Mayweather’s life has been threatened. They boxing mobsters are allegedly pushing for Floyd to fight Terence Crawford. That’s why Crawford is not moving up.
This theory makes some sense. Because Al Haymon was dumped by Showtime Boxing and had to find a new distribution outlet for his fights, which turned out to be Amazon. So Haymon is under the gun to deliver major, exciting events. The same old PBC in-house sets aren’t going to work anymore, the public has had enough of Al Haymon’s “theater of the expected.”
That’s why Haymon needs Mayweather to get in there with Crawford. Mayweather’s star power and value were never transferred after his last wins vs Andre Berto and Conor McGregor. The historic boxing formula is that the old star moneymaker always gets sacrificed at the end – to transfer his value to the heir apparent – Holmes to Ali, De La Hoya to Floyd, Holmes to Tyson, Leonard to Norris, Chavez to Oscar, Louis to Marciano…
Haymon has always owned Floyd. Haymon was his chief protector and the reason why Floyd was able to duck every prime threat that could have beaten him. So now Floyd owes Haymon some favors. And Haymon urgently needs Floyd to step up and sacrifice his star power and value to Crawford. Floyd’s star power is waiting to be transferred and it’s worth hundreds of millions to Crawford, Haymon and whoever is next after Crawford.
Floyd is the only other big money option Haymon can give to Crawford now. Canelo doesn’t want to fight Crawford because he would lose to Crawford. Haymon wants to keep Canelo and Crawford separate as they are two major revenue streams. Canelo losing to Crawford would be very bad business for Haymon as he needs both Crawford and Canelo as his two main attractions for the Amazon deal. (Wilder and Tank Davis are second tier attractions.)
So Crawford vs Mayweather actually does make a lot of sense if you consider the history pattern of star power and value transfer. Crawford vs Mayweather would be a massive event that millions of people would be happy to pay to see the biggest loudmouth in boxing history finally get his comeuppance, karma and poetic justice.
