“BELIEVE IT OR NOT” BLACK FIGHTERS DON’T DRAW!
October 10th, 2011 By Pedro Fernandez
Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson
San Francisco, CA- Having been at this a while, I am always questioning the motives and intentions of both promoters and fighters alike. That is what makes me different from the norm, as in some instances I just throw out the “who, what, where and when” format journalism is based on and head in another direction. That being said, I am beyond perplexed that reigning World light heavyweight (175 lbs) champ Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KOs) will meet Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs) in the City of Angels, Los Angeles, CA this Saturday night on an HBO telecast emanating from the Staples Center on a card that is dubbed, “Believe It Or Not.”
BLACKS DON’T DRAW OR BUY DUCATS UNLESS…
Fighters of African-American descent that can draw a huge gate are a rarity. Right now, I can already hear the seething of Blacks thinking that I’m taking a shot at them ethnically from the headline of this paragraph. But it is true, Bernard Hopkins couldn’t draw, not unless he was fighting Oscar De La Hoya or Felix Trinidad. If you attended any of Hopkins’ defenses of the middleweight title, you know where I’m coming from. Oh, there are exceptions, Muhammad Ali, Ray Leonard and Mike Tyson could sell out arenas, regardless of whom they were fighting. Evander Holyfield and George Foreman, not so much. The only African-American fighter that can pack a joint today is Floyd Mayweather!
DAWSON COULDN’T DRAW 35 MILES FROM HOME
In 2009, Dawson took on Glen Johnson in Hartford, CT, which is roughly 35 miles from his home of New Haven, CT and reportedly drew less than 1,000 paid. Hopkins on the other hand, I can’t think of a time when he sold out any arena, ever, on his own, not even fighting near his home base of Philadelphia, PA.
CAN ONLY MEXICAN STARS DRAW IN LOS ANGELES?
There are two Mexican fighters on the bill, the first is Mexican national Antonio DeMarco (25-2-1, 18 KOs) of Tijuana taking on Jorge Linares (31-1, 20 KOs) of Venezuela. The second, Orlando Mora (28-1-1, 19 KOs) of Culiacan, will face Brooklyn’s Paulie Malignaggi (29-4, 6 KOs). Neither Mora or DeMarco are really big names, so what is the lure hear to get Mexican’s to buy tickets that top off at $300 and bottom out at $25? Unbeaten Mexican sensation Saul Alvarez had a great crowd at the Staples Center a fortnight ago when HBO split the Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz Pay Per View card that resulted in Floyd putting out Ortiz in Las Vegas, while Alvarez stopped Alfonso Gomez at the Staples Center.
SO WHY IS THE AFOREMENTIONED TRUE?
When I promoted cards in San Francisco, I could never count on a huge Black turnout. Without putting him on the spot here, a Hall of Fame promoter told me that “Black fighters don’t draw” and “Blacks don’t buy fight tickets,” that is the rule and not the exception. Hell, all that being said, who is going to take the apparent financial bath this Saturday night when Hopkins-Dawson takes place at the Staples Center.
TOMORROW: BERNARD HOPKINS, IS IT MONEY OR LEGACY?
Pedro Fernandez
concerning Hopkins-Dawson..who would pay to watch this crap? Hopkins is an obnoxious guy who has pissed off too many fans. Dawson is almost competent but I guess lacks the stuff to draw fans.
I think blacks buy tickets on the local level. I have been to many fights cards where a local black fighter has plenty of fans attending. I also can’t understand why fans pay hard earned money to watch Mayweather fight washed up or over weight class opponents. But thats just me.
Pedro ,do you remember how many blacks bought tickets to watch Jimmy Lester in the SF bay area? He was not great but a very exciting guy to watch. Of course that was almost 50 years ago. When he fought Nate Collins at the Civic Center Auditorium it was a sell out with both black and white fans. Not too many Hispanics in those days.
It was the 60s. Nate is doing great, looking great, Jimmy died a few years ago. I’m talking about the rule, not the exceptions! Thanks, Jim.
Mayweathers PPV buys that night are a little skewd because of Alvarez fight. I don’t think Mayweather even sold out the MGM that night. Too his credit, Mayweather is the only black fighter that will draw. Sorry B-Hop, you are not exciting enough.
That’s because the black demographic don’t have the disposable income for 70 dollar ppv’s (Most matches aren’t even worth ppv by the way like the maywetaher/ortiz cluster-f*<k for example. Promoters like Don King have ruined Boxing by putting every piece-of-$#!t match on ppv for a short-term gain. Most of these type of matches used to be on free tv).
Anyway, why would black people pay to watch two black guys fight in a ring when they can see lots of black guys fighting for free right down the street? You can see them fight with weapons even there; it's much more real than ufc. You'll see what happens for real if you deliberately take a man to the ground there in a real fight, by the $#!t…
White people are the most violent people in the world though they create the illusion of being civilized, but they practice killing and genocide on a industrial scale. And they're willing to pay big bucks for their violence fix…
This is an interesting question. Hopkins, he’s just a jerk that isn’t very exciting to watch. He will never draw well. Don’t know the reason other black fighters don’t draw. Mayweather does but how in the hell does he even have a fan base? When did that happen? Very strange. One more jerk that isn’t exciting to watch.
Biggest Draw;
White vs Black
2nd Biggest Draw;
White vs Brown
3rd Biggest Draw;
White vs White
4th Biggest Draw;
ANY Good/Great Minority vs Minority
It’s been like that forever,
With respect… I don’t think this is a Black Fighters don’t draw issue. Mike Tyson vrs Evander Holyfield one and two… THE END!
I’m sorry but let me be frank… Mayweather(Black) and Pacquiao(Asian)… Remove those two men from the sport and tell me who is a DRAW? — Myself, I come up with NOBODY! — Regardless of race religion or creed.
Boxing is what it is and it has itself to blame for this, not race… It was only a little over a decade ago where a mouthy British Arab was on top of the boxing world food chain and making more money than both Mayweather and Pacquiao combined were by a good multiple of about three at the time.
Chad isn’t a draw and Hopkins is only a draw when he has a known draw for a dancing partner… I’m Actually Dying to see this fight but that is only because I have a friend who is working Dawson’s corner… That being said and as much respect as I have for both Chad and Bernard… Nobody out there is on their knees, dying to see this fight… But this has nothing to do with race or it’s relationship towards drawing power.
Bradguy you said :”Anyway, why would black people pay to watch two black guys fight in a ring when they can see lots of black guys fighting for free right down the street? You can see them fight with weapons even there; it’s much more real than ufc. You’ll see what happens for real if you deliberately take a man to the ground there in a real fight, by the $#!t…”
Your a moron if you think like that. You don’t think white people, mexicans, filipinos fight down the street in neighborhoods? Is that really your reason to pedro’s question?
And quit hating on white people. I bet your race also has some piece of sh*% stains within its ethnic group. Don’t look now, but you might get a whiff of what i’m talking about…
When two black fighters”both from the east coast”, both without the most exciting styles are fighting clear across the country in LA that is really the problem. Promoters relly don’t want to take too many risks and promote black fighters. However when Devon Alexander fought in ST Louis he drew well, as well as corey Spinks. Jermain Taylor drew well when fighting near home. Bottom line is they don’t draw in Vegas because the majority of gamblers aren’t African American. Even if you go see Ward in Oakland he draws relatively well. If a guy consistently fights at home and keeps winning he will draw. This idea that blacks have no money to attend fights is BS. Not saying many aren’t economically challenged. However people spend their money on plenty of things, and if the opportunity arises they will support their fighters if their local.However LA fighters have no real connection to Hopkins or Dawson from a local standpoint. Hopkins has fans, but we’ll see how well he does at the gate. He did pretty well when he fought here last time against Howard Eastman.
I don’t think Fraud Mayweather Jr is draw because he is that good. He is a draw because many avid boxing fans who hate his antics want to see him lose. Once that zero becomes 1, it won’t be the same anymore.
Black fighters run their mouth more than their actual fight..disgusting to watch…when you have latinos, they’re there for one reason alone, knock each others head off.. and that sells. And Latino’s or any other ethnic group, beside blacks, give support for their countryman..I disagree with Mayweather being a draw. The only reason, he has done great numbers is because of his opponents fan base. Take for example, it was Dela Hoya’s fan base, Hattons fan base, Mosely’s fan base..etc..
Pedro just for your information. I heard Mayweather vs Ortiz PPV sales is only 850,000 buys.
The reason black doesn’t draw is because they are too defensive and afraid to get hit. Considering they have thick black skin that’s hard to bruised and bleed. Look what Clottey and Mosley did against Pacquiao, they both run all night. Mayweather is another boring defensive fighter. Hopkins, all he does is clinch all night. On the other Hispanics, Asians and Caucasians are all forward fighters and exciting to watch. I wonder if Hopkins Dawson PPV will get 1,000 buys.
Generally, black figthers including HOPKINs are BOOOOOOOOOOring that’s why they can’t draw. There are exceptions of course like the likes of Ali, Tyson, Leonard, even Hearns to name. Although they are defensive, they are explosive too. I don’t know about Mayweather. I never bought any of his past fights. This guy sucks! I don’t know why people keep buying when he fights. They said they only want to see him loss. Ain’t gonna happen because his opponent is cherrypicking, so why bother?
economics and the economy are the reasons why dear friends. look at the overall situations as it is. in the 70′s lots of people had jobs, so in the 80s and when the shit hit the fan and millions of factories etc closed , that employed the working class,who were the real paying fans of boxing via closed curcuit…so to say blacks don’t draw is bullshit. did mike tyson draw, or evander or even lenox lewis. be real
Hopkins drew over 10,000 to the Staples center vs Howard Eastman in think 2005 without any Mexican fighters supporting, I believe Junior witter was the semi fight. black consumers have better ways to spend money than boxing with it’s many corrupt entities.
The best champions are Black!!Boxing is nothing without Black people..Black American fighters have a style that can’t be duplicated.We created the best style in the world.Sugar ray Robinson,Joe Louis,Sugar ray Leonard,Muhammad Ali,Jack Johnson,Thomas Hearns,Larry Holmes,Michael Spinks,Bernard Hopkins,Floyd Mayweather,Roy Jones,George Foreman,Joe Frazier,Aaron Pryor,Marvin Hagler,James Toney,Sugar Shane Mosley and many more….We are not good boxing fans,but Blacks come out to see Floyd and Andre Ward in Oakland..I really know boxing for real…I will debate anybody on this subject!
Today, most african-american is no longer a draw in boxing that even the most touted FMJ fight with Ortiz draw flack in gate receipt at the MGM arena and on PPV sales, the reasons we didn’t hear noise from HBO. If you look at the crowd you could only see most are hispanic faces.
i am thinking why this writer suddenly approved of floyd mayweather jr a draw? in the marquez mayweather fight, GBP lied to its sell of $1.1M when officially it was only 800k. the recent ortiz mayweather fight GBP is so quiet they fear of humiliation that speculations expect a low 450K to 800k ppv sells only! now hows that for floyd jr a draw? dont think so.
Black fighters don’t draw ANYMORE!! Yes, some years back they drew large crowds but now, the black boxer just fights for the money. They no longer actually “fight”. Take Mayweather for example, he has a don’t get hit at all cost mentality that is very boring! If he has his way, he will engage a fighter but once he tastes leather, its up against the ropes and run all night…Mosley and De La Hoya come to mind. Who wants to see somebody that won’t “fight” in a “fighting” match? Plus, both Hopkins and Mayweather are extreme racists, rude, obnoxious and extremly narcissistic!! Just listen to their rants, particularly Mayweather on Latinos and Philippinos. Real boxing fans by the way, not just “brothers” that only care about seeing a black man win.
Blacks don’t draw any more because there’s no more exciting fighter coming from them nowadays. What we got right now are fighters full of smoke and are so scared to mix it up. They just rely on hyping themselves through media thrash talking and create controversies. There are only now a handful of stupid boxing fans who would waste their hard earned cash to watch boring black performers.
What puzzles me is why not have this fight in Philly its Hopkins hometown plus Dawsons from the east coast (CT i believe) they should have a big fan base there.You would figure a bigger gate there would mean more money oh well!
If people like Merchant and Lampley pointed out the greatest in AA fighters boxing abilities instead of criticizing our style,while praising fighters like Paq with very little skills,the public would be more inclined to show up. If new fans are being taught head first fighters like Mexicans are good boxers,when they see actual boxing it’s seen as running in their eyes. We need announcers that appreciate the art form.
Nonsense, Sean. People pay for entertainment. To draw real money, boxers and promoters must draw in the mainstream casual fans because the small core group of hardcores who appreciate technique ain’t gonna amount to very much money in the boxers’ and promoters’ pockets.
Mainstream casual fans don’t follow the sport and are totally ignorant of technique, but they damn sure know if they’ve been entertained or not and if the show was worth paying their hard-earned dollars for or not.
No announcer is gonna convince them otherwise of that.
It’s up to the boxer to change himself up to be more exciting in order to sell more tickets.
In a sense, everyone of you has written something true about why fighters are no longer draws anymore. The main reason….the lack of a heavyweight division. There is a certain fluidity and style that fighters that are 6’4”+ and over 230 lbs can’t achieve. It just doesn’t look good on tv. But those fighters are the dominant ones in the HW division, which should really be a Super HW division. So that makes a whole division 200-230lb fighters obsolete even though historically, they have produced the biggest draws in boxing history. Ali, Tyson, Holyfield, Jack Johnson…with Louis, Marciano, Dempsey being just under 200lbs.
To the guy who said black american fighters have a style that no one else can duplicate…..I ask which style? all the fighters you mentioned don’t have the same style. If you meant that Flashy, hit and get out of the way style…only a few on your list actually qualify for that. Jack Johnson (the godfather of that style) Floyd Mayweather jr, Roy Jones and of course Ali.
But Ali achieved more popularity after his comeback, when the playing field was evened do to his 3 years in forced retirement. Once he lost the ability to move out of the way he became much more famous.
The rest of that list….Hagler, Foreman, Fraizer, Pryor, Moseley (until recently) and i’ll add Holyfiend and Tyson are fighters first….they’d rather hit you and not care about getting hit back to prove they can take it and show they are the tougher man.
The reason why Floyd is the biggest “black fighter” draw is because that is who the Black American community has chosen to support…wasn’t like that 20,30,40 years ago when you could pick Tyson or Holyfield, or Bowe or Foreman….or Hagler or Leonard or Hearns… There were just too many good fighters to chose from. In a sense, the black community has made race the issue about why Floyd is hated so much. And floyd has made it work for him….but like Pedro said, he’s the exception, not the rule…. so other black fighters, in order to achieve popularity would be wise to not immulate his style.
And yet another reason boxing is not as popular… American Society has changed. There is no more importance on boxing anymore. People would rather watch golf, tennis, and nascar all day then two guys beat the crap out of each other. And the ones that Do want to see people beat the crap out of each other are torn between MMA and Boxing. Even though the majority of us enjoy both as competition.
Last and not least….people are tired of feeling cheated when ordering PPV’s. I believe this goes back to Tyson-Holyfield II back in 1996 followed by the snorefest of Lewis-Holyfield’s fights, De la Hoya vs Trinidad in which DLH just stopped fighting, DLH-Mayweather (a fight in which neither did anything amazing) and now the lack of putting the two best fighters on the planet Pac and May in the ring for the past 3 years.
For the most part, boxing has hurt itself, regardless of skin color. All though some fighters that might be stars in the near future Canelo Alvarez, Nonito Donaire, Julio Caesar Chavez (thru name only) Amir Khan (probably just in Britain) and just so happens that none of them are black….but…. their biggest fights will probably happen when they step into the ring against a black fighter.