Instead of hitting each other, Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya will hit the road together over the next fortnight.
The pair are due to fight on May 5 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and tickets have already sold out for this event, in fact they sold out in three hours!
The idea behind Mayweather and De La Hoya travelling together is that they should be able to increase their PPV (pay-per-view) customers. Together they are doing a eleven city media tour across the entire USA which begins today (Tuesday) in New York at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
This is definitely, for me at least, the biggest boxing match up of the year. The 154-pound title fight takes place at 9pm ET, 2am GMT on PPV HBO. One of the sports most popular fighters, and six division world champion, Oscar De La Hoya (38-4, 30 KOs) faces my number one pound for pound fighter, and unbeaten four division champion Floyd Mayweather (37-0, 24 KOs).
This fight is being promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, De La Hoya’s promoters and it has already guaranteed a US live gate of a record $19million. I think the fight will also generate record PPV buys once the fighters begin promoting in earnest.
After New York, these two great boxers will continue in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., Wednesday; Chicago and Detroit on Thursday; Miami on Friday; Houston and Dallas on Feb. 26; San Francisco and Las Vegas on Feb. 27; and concludes in Los Angles on Feb. 28.
Both fighters will conduct public news conferences, and fans are invited.
“I hope all the fans come out to celebrate with us,” De La Hoya said. “Seeing my fans in every city on the tour will motivate and remind me of what I have been fighting for all along and why I will win.”
Mayweather added: “This is a huge promotion for me. I’m looking forward to talking to the media and the fans in all of those cities to let them know just how ready I am to beat Oscar De La Hoya.”
Its a shame they are not coming the England or somewhere in the UK or Europe as then I would definitely go along to meet these two boxing greats.
Are you going to be watching the fight?
Who do you think will win? Would you put your money where you mouth is…?
im sure that the golden bou will totally beat the pretty boy. the golden boy has a lot of advantages to the pretty boy. first is the weigth, we all know the golden boy is comfortable in that weigth where they’re fighting. speaking of the skills the golden boy is a hard puncher…
the golden by a knock out… 9-11 round…:)
Comment by kigz — February 20, 2007 @ 9:31 am
i dont know man… its a close one. because Del La Hoya has been threw it all… but man Mayweather has some power and speed… i want Oscar to win but man deep down i think Mayweather is going to floor him just because of his power…. but we will see… its going to be a good one!
Comment by WES — April 23, 2007 @ 10:54 pm