Oscar De La Hoya: Canelo vs Lara nearly sold out, fight tracking well for PPV

Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya says that he and his team are counting down the days until Canelo Alvarez meets Erislandy Lara on Showtime pay-per-view this Saturday, and everyone is enthusiastic about early reports from cable companies, as well as the live gate sales.

"Everybody's really excited. Just to point out to you, the event is almost sold out, a complete sell out," De La Hoya said on a conference call with media.

"We are also hearing from all the cable operators that this fight is tracking extremely well, so it's obviously a great indication not only of Canelo's star power and not only of the great stacked card that we have, but also because this is a great fight that a lot of people feel is a toss-up fight."

It's worth remembering that all promoters say fights are "tracking extremely well" on pay-per-view before the fight, and everyone is excited, and all that jazz. Pay-per-view has been a bit cold for boxing this year, though. Canelo's fight in March with Alfredo Angulo is the only major pay-per-view bout thus far that has hit sales expectations, as Pacquiao-Bradley II, Mayweather-Maidana, and Cotto-Martinez were all underwhelming performers.

Realistically, this fight is probably being expected to sell about 300,000 or so on pay-per-view, all on Canelo's name value. Lara is a top fighter at 154, but not a star, with no fan base. It may be interesting to see how much of March's number with Angulo was due to Angulo, as we might get an idea of that based on how this fight sells. It's also possible that some fans decided to buy this fight instead of the Cotto-Martinez fight in June, so that might be a factor for both of those bouts, too.