You are either going to be in one of two camps if you are tweeting about tomorrow night’s Mike Tyson versus Roy Jones Junior legends boxing bout.
The first camp houses those people that will actually purchase the pay per view and watch it with genuine interest. This event has a wider audience and appeal than Chuck Liddell versus Tito Ortiz 3 but it is still a fight between 2 elite athletes in their 50’s, way past their prime. The fact that two of the biggest boxers to ever play the game are coming out of retirement is enough of a selling point for hard-core fans but will it be enough for those on the fence? Can the appeal of seeing Mike Tyson in the ring again convince people to part with their money?
The other camp is going to contain a large number of people that are active on social media, even tweeting about the fight without having seen or done more than reading the results. This is not a new concept but this camp is full of people who will make or break the event financially. It is a slippery slope for a promoter. Again, just go check the numbers for Golden Boy’s Liddell vs Ortiz 3. We were all told before it started by Oscar De La Hoya that they were trending near 300,000 to 350,000 expected buys. We found out later that it wasn’t even 1/10 of that. The point is that the fans saying that they are going to buy it aren’t the same as the ones who actually do.
Tomorrow night we will find out if Conor McGregor is in the buy or no buy camp. He has tweeted several times about the event and he does seem genuinely excited about it so maybe that will spark some other fan interest. McGregor watched an interview with Tyson speaking about the late manager/trainer Cus D’Amato and what he would’ve thought about him fighting in his 50s. He seemed to agree with Mike.
Are you going to buy the pay-per-view? Who do you think wins?