The most important detail in selling a fight? Make sure both fighters are marquee names:
“Most other fights need both sides to make the huge fight. So De La Hoya and Mayweather did huge pay-per-view numbers, but it took both fighters. It took more of a street guy in Mayweather and more of a crossover in De La Hoya. So you need that as well in the mixed martial arts. But I don’t think that there’s the discrepancy that you all think there might be out there. I think there’s some bad info out there.”
The last two sentences there by Shaw are a reissuing of his position that there isn’t a discrepancy between what boxers and MMA fighters make. Please. For starters, none of us really know what anyone is making between sponsorships and bonuses. More importantly, while I don’t presume the money De La Hoya or Mayweather earns is typical of professional boxers, it’s hard for me to swallow the idea that a sport routinely covered in national/mainstream media outlets, historically revered, mainstream accepted, and cozy with blue chip sponsors pays their athletes roughly identical sums to a sport whose premier association has an instant replay sponsored by malt liquor.
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