Martinez vs Barker: Ticket Sales Dead in the Water for Saturday Fight
by Scott Christ on Sep 27, 2011 1:57 PM EDT
in Boxing News Analysis
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I'm not putting this up simply to be adversarial or point and laugh or whatever, but this is really bad. Middleweight champ Sergio Martinez did an in-store appearance at a Modell's in New York City today, and there was an offer for a free pair of tickets with $20 spent on Everlast products.
A free pair of tickets, for $20 spent at Modell's.
This, combined with several discounts and an offer of 30% off for those who had bought a ticket to the now-rescheduled October 29 fight between Andre Ward and Carl Froch, really points out the extreme difficulty promoters are having moving tickets to this fight.
So why is this one so bad?
Is it the fact that nobody knows Darren Barker? He's never fought on U.S. TV and hasn't exactly had a U.K. career that made waves worldwide. He's a domestic-level British fighter, basically. In today's crap middleweight division that puts him around top ten status (we have him No. 9), and it's not meant as an insult, because he's a fine, talented fighter. But he has no name value here.
Some of this has to lie with Sergio Martinez, though, and with this going on, and Sergio not exactly filling Atlantic City for recent fights, it's a lot easier to understand Miguel Cotto almost snickering at the idea that he could make $5 million to fight Sergio Martinez, as he did at a presser for the Margarito fight last week.
How much of it is location? Atlantic City has had trouble drawing for fights since Arturo Gatti retired, with the exception of Kelly Pavlik and his traveling Youngstown audience. How much of it is simply Martinez being an Argentinean fighter with no big fanbase, and Barker not being a traveling star from overseas even on the level of, say, Carl Froch? How much of it is a promotional problem?
I hate to see it happen to a guy like Sergio Martinez who is a legit champion, a charismatic guy, a top-tier fighter, and fights in an exciting style, but yes, look, boxing is hurting in the United States. Crowds just aren't coming out for fights in big numbers save for a Mayweather or Pacquiao fight, or someone with a legit regional draw, and those guys don't usually charge ticket prices like this fight has.
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It’s an Argentine (via Spain, a true journeyman with no travelling pull) versus a Brit (a standard, generic one, not the kind that brings Brits over the pond) in a depressed Atlantic City.
As much as Martinez deserves to be near international superstar (read: sells tix in U.S.) Manny Pacquiao in the P4P rankings, he is no Pacquiao in terms of his Q rating with people not on this site, and others like it.
In other words, even though Maravilla is my favorite fighter at work right now, this isn’t the least bit surprising. DiBella should have been a little more creative here.
The idea of promoting fighters seems to scare most promoters.
by The Twillness on Sep 27, 2011 2:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Honestly, this fight only belonged in London. That was genuinely the only place where tickets would have sold. However, instead of putting the fight on here at, say, 02:00 UK time and showing Lee-Vera from NY (or NJ, but that clearly wasn’t a good idea) after on a split site show, they’ve totally killed the actual attendance with a fight that was attractive nowhere other than London. Good job, DBE.
"Occasionally, there is a boxing match that, in its demonstration of skill, courage, intelligence, hope, seems to redeem the sport - almost. Perhaps boxing has always been a sport in crisis, a sport of crisis."
by Oli Goldstein on Sep 27, 2011 2:37 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
If they’d be so kind to add tickets for the flight over the big pond, I’d be happy to invest those 20$.
"Sure, there have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious." Alan Minter
I understand that there is more money in the US HBO market, but this fight could only really have sold tickets in Europe or Argentina, maybe at a push Montreal. I can’t blame Dibella much in this. Much like with Berto, he has tried his best to sell tickets. It just hasn’t worked out (again).
I really like both fighters but the lack of US knowledge on Barker has hurt ticket sales. Also even the familiar with Barker in the UK, who has about the same media profile in the UK as Carl Froch circa 2008, don’t give him much of a shot. Personally I give Barker as much a shot at beating Sergio as I would Macklin or Lee, which is not much.
Nobody will read this and care and why should they?
It wouldn't have sold anything in Argentina
Why do think Sergio has never gone back there to fight? There’s no money and little interest.
by Bad Mamajama on Sep 27, 2011 11:17 PM EDT up reply actions
There’s plenty of interest. There are pretty well-attended fight cards in Argentina consistently. But no there’s not much money.
Bad Left Hook
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by Scott Christ on Sep 27, 2011 11:31 PM EDT up reply actions
Martinez, Mayweather, Pacquiao...
This is really too bad. But really, I think you have to do something outside of boxing to be noticed these days… Both Pacquiao and Mayweather do things outside of the ring and it’s really what makes people get interested. Pacquiao is a congressman, sings, makes commercials, etc. Mayweather? He gets in trouble with the law and talks a lot. People get annoyed or whatever but they notice him. Either way, those two are always in the news. People hear about them.
Sergio? I don’t hear anything about him outside of boxing. Sadly, there are now many other things to preoccupy the everyday people besides boxing (or professional wrestling). I googled “martinez barker” and didn’t get anything outside of boxing scene, boxing insider, and fight news (no BLH even).
Then I got really curious… what would happen if Pacquiao and Mayweather fight on Google? (Go ahead, click on the link) Damn, Mayweather won but it’s pretty close! Well, then I tried to be more specific Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao… Holy crap! ;)
Well now, let’s see Sergio Martinez vs Darren Barker… I’m all verklempt, talk amongst yourselves.
Seriously though, look at the # of hits—Manny Pacquiao: 27.9M, Floyd Mayweather Jr.: 14.3M (44M if you remove “jr”), and Sergio Martinez: 4.5M. That’s pretty much what I’m talking about.
Sergio has to make a name for himself
Simple as that. H needs to make himself an attraction or personality that is different from all others, while continuing to win.
Simple as that.
"Winning is Everything"
Failure is not an Option
If you're not first, you're last
Honestly, he's too old for that
He has a shelf life of a year an a half, tops, at this point.
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"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
by Brickhaus on Sep 27, 2011 10:01 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
He needs to go to 168
I don’t know why he left 154 where there are better fights for him, and 154 brings him closer to 147 catch weight fights with the big names. 160 is no man’s land there are no big names and no money fights either. Maybe he can go to Germany and see if Abraham wants his 4th lose in a row. And he only went to 160 to fight Williams when Pavilik dropped out for the 10th time. He should go up or down nothing there at 160 anymore its not the 80’s or even the 90’s for that mater.
168 and a maybe a move to showtime if he dose go up. But look at all the fights at 168 that could be great fights Froch v Ward loser, Bute v Kessler winner..etc Andre is also out there with no fights.
I'd be there if this weekend wasn't Rosh Hashanah
But there’s little question hy this ones having trouble selling. No big names (as mich as DiBella wants to think Sergio is one, he isn’t), no big local demographics, no good weather for the beach and no good off tv undercard.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
by Brickhaus on Sep 27, 2011 10:00 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
LDB should be shouting Mayweather’s name, saying that he’s a a cheap sucker puncher and that if he was any kind of man, he should step up and fight someone his own size (eg. Martinez)…..not some one time welterweight bum in Ortiz.
Instead he critiques Ortiz, kisses Floyd’s ass and winds up making his fighter squat.
Now I’m not a promoter or any kind of genius but DiBella has done nothing but waste prescious time chasing smaller men down in weight instead of either baiting them up (….or moving up into Montreal and challenging Bute,
the only place where money is following it’s fighters.
"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer"
---- Muhammed Ali
Does a Bute fight make Sergio more money than a Barker fight?
At least when you consider the risk/reward? Pavlik was offered 1.1 for Bute. Assuming Sergio got that same amount, and I’m not convinced he would, I bet he is getting paid that same amount for Barker. Why go up to fight Bute other than for legacy?
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