Promoter Oscar De La Hoya says Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Terence Crawford will make 1 million PPV buys.
De La Hoya feels there is enough interest from fans in a clash between Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Vergil (22-0, 21 KOs) to sell a million buys. These boxers can meet in February at one of the events of His Excellency Turki Alalshikh.
Lack of Star Power
Crawford is not a PPV draw, and neither is Vergil Ortiz, who is unknown to casual boxing fans. Last Saturday night, Vergil fought the first fight of his eight-year professional career against a top-level fighter, Serhii Bohachuk, and he didn’t do well.
Crawford vs. Vergil Jr. it could be poison on a PPV and it could blow up badly, it could bring in 200K buys at best, depending on how packed the undercard is for the event. Charisma is absent, and both come from controversial decisions.
Even if you don’t want to call them controversial, Crawford’s play with Vergil was still unclear. If these two can buy some personality at Walmart, it would do well, but I hate to say it, this is going to be a huge PPV disaster.
“I think they are the only wars that make more than a million homes because making a million homes, a lot happens. [with other sources of non-boxing entertainment for fans]. People have short memories here, so they want to see the best fight,” said promoter Oscar De La Hoya on Club Shay Shay’s YouTube channel.
“I think it’s only wars [do 1 million PPV buys] there’s Canelo-Terence Crawford, anything with Ryan Garcia, Vergil Ortiz-Terence Crawford. There are many, but you just need that perfect dance partner,” said De La Hoya.
No Charisma, Experience, and Marketing
If Turki included real famous fighters, like Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz, it could make more than 200K, but not because of the main event between Crawford and Vergil. That is a disaster.
The problem with Crawford-Ortiz Jr:
- Both lack charisma
- Ordinary fans don’t know them
- Little experience in big fights: Crawford has only one big fight in his career. Vergil has never been in a notable fight, and you can’t count Bohachuk out as a big one. The fans didn’t know this guy.
- Poor sales
- Unclear conversations
It’s not a good time for Vergil and Crawford to fight on PPV, given that both are coming off controversial results that many boxing fans saw as losing.
Vergil was knocked down twice but was awarded a controversial 12-round majority decision over WBC junior middleweight champion Serghii Bohachuk. The judges gave Ortiz Jr, 26, the victory by scores of 113, 114-112 and 114-112.
The fans saw this fight as a draw or a close win for the champion Bohachuk but not for Vergil, who scored a blow in this fight. As for Crawford, he was awarded a 12-round unanimous decision win over WBA junior middleweight champion Israel Madrimov on August 3rd.
Madrimov lit him up with his right hands all night, but the judges focused on the jabs Crawford landed during the fight. In other words, they scored as if it were a novice event and not an expert event.
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