Joseph Gaxiola of Eastside Boxing was fortunate enough to catch up with professional business boxing man Rick “The Raccoon” Glaser. Rick recently gave us an insight on his history in boxing and his current status in the game but in this second exclusive interview, Raccoon provides us his thoughts on Mayweather/Maidana 2, the undercard for that event, and the actual ppv buys. Read below to find out what they were.
ESB: Rick, thank you for giving us some time out of your busy schedule to share your thoughts on the recent Mayweather/Maidana 2 event.
RG: No problem Joe, thank you for having me.
ESB: Lets get right into it Rick, what were your thoughts on the Mayweather/Maidana 2 bout and the overall event.
RG: The fight did exactly as I felt it would be, boring. As I mentioned in our previous interview, their initial fight was somewhat entertaining but it did not merit a rematch. At least the first fight had some exchanges, this fight involved a great deal of running by Floyd, holding, and lack of exchanges.
ESB: Your thoughts on the undercard for Mayweather/Maidana 2?
RG: The undercard was absolutely deplorable, none of the fights on the undercard helped with selling the ppv. If anything, the undercard lineup helped in not selling the ppv. I will mention though that I was very happy to see James De la Rosa pickup a good win. The guy needed a break and he finally got one. If he goes back to 154lbs, he can give any fighter in that weight class trouble.
ESB: Just days after the ppv, numerous boxing websites posted that the Mayweather/Maidana 2 ppv sold approximately 925k and were lauding it as a complete success. Your thoughts on that figure Sir?
RG: When I heard 925k, I immediately refuted that figure because there was absolutely no way that number was anywhere near the actual buys.
Unfortunately, many boxing websites that reported that figure are also close to the Mayweather camp. The actual ppv buys for Mayweather/Maidana 2 is 772k, and I stand by my figure 100%.
As I predicted, the rematch did far less than the first fight and it clearly did. Although 772k is a very good number, it has to be considered a huge failure when you factor in Floyd’s guarantee of 32 million.
ESB: Many in the boxing industry feel you continuously put out the buys for Mayweather events as an attack on Stephen Espinoza, Showtime, etc. What do you say to that?
RG: I have no gripe with Stephen Espinoza, Showtime, or anyone else for that matter. What I do have a problem with is the continuous lies put out by Espinoza. Espinoza has continuously put out false numbers to mislead the consumer and that is a bad business practice. All I have ever asked for and expected was the truth and since he could not do that, I figured I would help him. Hopefully by me putting out the actual number of 772k for Mayweather/Maidana 2, the public will realize once again that these shows being put on by Haymon/Espinoza are not ppv worthy.
ESB: Other than the main event and undercard, what else do feel led to the numbers being so low?
RG: You also have to consider the price tag for this event was very high, somewhere in the vicinity of $75 plus tax is a great deal of money when you consider great college football games are going on all day and night for absolutely free.
ESB: Raccoon, I want to thank you once again for coming onto Eastside Boxing and sharing your wealth of information. Any last words?
RG: Thank you for having me, I am here for Eastside Boxing anytime. For those who would like to hear more boxing information and/or have any questions, I can be reached on twitter @rickglaser1 and on facebook rick glaser.