Sky Sports News US correspondent on the global coverage
Saturday 25 April 2015 19:01, UK
When the long-anticipated Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao mega-fight was officially announced, it became shockingly apparent that this would not be your pedestrian 'Fight of the Century', writes US correspondent Jon Saraceno.
For many years, I was fortunate enough to chronicle some of the most-important fights in boxing history for USA TODAY, America’s best-selling fish-wrapper.
Among the fighters I had the privilege and pleasure of watching ringside in championship bouts were Larry Holmes, George Foreman, Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, Michael Spinks, Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Roy Jones Jr, Pernell Whitaker, Felix Trinidad, Julio Cesar Chavez, Oscar De La Hoya and many more.
However, never have I witnessed anything comparable to the media feeding frenzy – not just in the United States but also across the globe – with the official announcement of this better-late-than-never welterweight showdown. In a sport dying for attention, this fight is a shot of pure adrenaline, and not merely for the boxing diehards.
Last month in Los Angeles, Mayweather and Pacquiao participated in a red carpet-style dog-and-pony show befitting Hollywood royalty, an affair that included more than 700 credentialed media. You would have thought that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were the featured guests instead of two well-worn pugilists.
Working as a reporter-analyst for ABC-TV affiliate KTNV in Las Vegas, I was gob-smacked by this incredible scene even as I was crushed into position for interviews with the superstar fighters. I remember thinking, ‘What in the name of Muhammad Ali is going on here?’’
Quickly, I came to this conclusion: The Mayweather-Pacquiao dust-up is the Super Bowl of boxing.
Just like the build-up for the NFL’s premier game, punters try to plot just the right moment to make their most-fortuitous wagers. The lucrative secondary ticket market savours the ridiculous prices that seats will command in the 16,500-seat MGM Grand Garden. Already in America, ticket packages are being advertised for online for more than $100,000.
American media, of course – traditional, social and otherwise – now finds themselves embarrassingly covered in pools of drool. Pass me a handkerchief, please! Back in the day, old-school fight publicists would beat the drums for months to maximize the public’s interest. Those crafty old souls would gin up fictionalised story lines in training camp in an attempt to empty barrels of news ink and unleash the inherent marketing muscle of the telly.
MayPac needs nothing of the sort. The fight sells itself. Hopefully, it lives up to its grand billing and we are rewarded with the Super Bowl of boxing - and not a Super Bore. It largely depends on Mr Mayweather, and whether he decides to mix it up with his tiny but fierce Filipino challenger.
"This isn’t hype," Mayweather gently corrected a reporter recently. "This is real life."
So be it. One thing is undeniable: this week the ear-splitting build-up in America for Mayweather-Pacquiao will reach a crescendo. Coverage will be dominated by ESPN, the 10,000-pound US media gorilla. Here is a startling fact: ESPN applied for more than 250 media credentials across all of its platforms. The dominant sports-cable giant was granted less than half of its stunning request.
Beginning Sunday, ESPN will feature weeklong, wall-to-wall reporting on a variety of televised and digital platforms, plus radio. ESPN International also will cover the story across networks in Latin America, the Pacific Rim and the Caribbean.
"ESPN told me they were going to treat this like the Super Bowl," Mayweather publicist Kelly Swanson told Sky Sports. "They took great ownership."
The network, the best of its kind, always does. Other news outlets merely try to keep pace as Disney-owned ESPN goes for the knockout.
"[The general media] are pushing the envelope every which way they can," Swanson said, including continuing to ask for exclusive and hopefully revealing chats with her famous client next week. Yes, only a few days before May 2.
Fight organisers say they have received nearly 2,000 applications for media credentials, an unprecedented surge. Pacquiao publicist Fred Sternburg said he averages about 150 emails per hour with varying requests.
Which, of course, probably made Mayweather burst out laughing. Interviews, what interviews? The undefeated champion is all but virtually guaranteed to gross in excess of $100 million – with or without suffering through repeated queries.
The Wall Street Journal offers little in the way of sports coverage – but in this instance the daily business journal has requested six credentials for fight night, organizers say. Sports Illustrated, the iconic magazine, plunked down two ace reporters in a Las Vegas apartment this month. The magazine plans to publish a double-cover edition this week with a photograph of Mayweather on one side, Pacquiao the other.
USA TODAY plans to send at least four reporters, and will feature stories on its new all-boxing website boxingjunkie.com. The highly respected New York Times Sunday Magazine will publish a story on the fight in this weekend’s editions. The newspaper, which opined in an editorial many years ago that boxing should be banned, also will dispatch multiple reporters.
Fight organisers say they have received nearly 2,000 applications for media credentials, an unprecedented surge. Pacquiao publicist Fred Sternburg said he averages about 150 emails per hour with varying requests.
“I get up in the middle of the night to check my emails just to avoid having to read 500 to 600 in the morning,’’ he said. “Media outlets that we haven’t heard from in decades are applying for credentials.’’
The heaviest concentration of requests emanate from America, Asia, Middle East and, of course, Europe. British boxing writers and broadcasters are fanatical about the match-up, Sternburg said. Sky Sports, the BBC, the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph, have shown particular interest.
When co-promoter Bob Arum abruptly cancelled a conference call with reporters from around the world last week, the reaction from British journos “was like a mutiny,’’ Sternburg said.
The pervasiveness of social media, of course, is chiefly what separates the enormous media attention from mega-bouts of yesteryear. But with a dearth of charismatic superstars in boxing, particularly the marquee heavyweight division, it might be another decade before we see anything even approaching the media madness that will soak this desert oasis this week, drenching the public in a downpour of endless stream of news, analysis, predictions and otherwise pithy observations.
Jon Saraceno is a Sky Sports News correspondent living in America and is in Las Vegas for MayPac, May 2.
Book Mayweather v Pacquiao, Sky Sports Box Office, May 2, via yourSky remote, phone or online now. If you want to record the event, book via your Sky remote. skysports.com/maypac
