ALVAREZ vs TROUT RECAP

by Joe Calvey

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of the big push to sell boxing. It is after all the least moral of any sport except for perhaps MMA and therefore requires precision grade marketing that is on equal footing with, say, cigarettes. That is not to say the participants are immoral nor is it saying that the promoters, managers and fans are morally inclined. The latter after all take some measure of enjoyment or profit from someone else getting punched in the head.
 
The Saul "Canelo" Alvarez versus Austin Trout fight that drew in the neighborhood of 38,000 fans was long on marketing and indeed gave the fight fans their money’s worth. But the main event was with the minor exception of the 7th round, unremarkable. It was in that 7th round when a visibly tired Alvarez knocked down Trout to open the round. Trout’s leg’s wobbled as he fell. Tought then got up before the 8 count and fought effectively the remainder of the round and the fight.
 
Golden Boy Promotions delivered a marketing effort that should be documented and delivered to the best business schools in America and serve as a blue print for successfully staging an event.
 
First, you need to start out with a highly sought after commodity, in this case Saul Alvarez. Next, mix in a competent and worthy opponent such as Austin Trout. Continue by lining up the big money from a television network or Showtime or HBO. Next bring in a local partner such as Leija-Battah to take on the financial risk of the live gate and to schedule as many pre-fight events as possible to create the buzz needed to sell tickets to brokers and individuals. The local co-promoter will need to provide the local leg work to make sure the groundwork is done.
 
Finally, select which boxers should be on the under card always with an eye towards their future value before drafting a list of questionably competitive opponents for them to face. Since the under card will be filled with unknowns and those barely known there will be enough money to pay the sanctioning bodies to provide the World Championship fight designation. If the inclusion of at least one controversial judge from outside of Texas is not included there might not be anything to talk about in the days, months and years after the fight. In this fight the three judges awarded Trout one, three and four of the twelve rounds. It is impossible to watch this fight and not see Trout winning more than the one round Boxing Hall of Fame member Stanley Christduolou scored. Christduolou was most notably the referee in the Marvin Hagler-Roberto Duran fight in 1983 and has credentials that are well, worthy of th Hall of Fame.

Boxing is a business and for a business to succeed it must acquire then satisfy it’s customers. Though a boxer might be the highest paid athlete throughout America many if not most newspapers do not have a section of their web site devoted to boxing.
Getting the media behind an event is the dream of every promoter. However, publicity is not advertising and the more publicity an event has the less advertising needs to be bought. Social media sites provide additional avenues to reaching the core audience and Leija-Battah reached and touched it’s database of fight fans several times a day in the weeks leading up to the fight.
 
The Alvarez-Trout fight was almost all it was hyped up to be. If you went to the event with a group of friends you got your money’s worth in general excitement.  Even though the under card was at times dull and the main event though competitive not terribly exciting it was worth seeing live. If you watched on Showtime you might have fallen asleep before the unanimous decision in favor of Alvarez was announced.