BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

The Big Thing in Boxing is Moving On to the Next Big Thing



Floyd Mayweather. Love him or hate him but you can't deny his drawing power. He had two fights in 2007 and both collectively drew 3.25 million pay-per-view buys that netted some $200 million. So much for boxing going the way of the dinosaur.

But with not much left to conquer inside the square ring, Mayweather has cast his eyes to the Octagon and Mixed Martial Arts. And look who's leading him into the world's fastest rising sport... billionaire Mark Cuban.

I guess there was a reason why the Dallas Mavericks' owner was a part of Mayweather's entourage even carrying his championship belts before his fight with Ricky Hatton (to set the record straight I was rooting for the Englishman).

But does MMA pay the kind of money boxing or a Mayweather fight will command? The champ netted $50 million for his fights against Oscar De La Hoya and Hatton?

When he gets back from his break, Mayweather will discuss Cuban's offer to fight in the latter's HDNet TV. But he can't let his ego get the better of him, MMA is way different from boxing. MMA fighters are equally skilled in hand-to-hand combat as they are fighting with their feet. Mayweather hasn't even used his footing except to dance away or to inch close for a knockout punch.

But what Cuban wants Cuban gets.

Stay tuned for more details.

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