Floyd Mayweather News: Champ's Latino Fan Base Grows As Marcos Maidana Fight Looms
Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe said that Floyd Mayweather Jr. has a surprisingly big Hispanic fan base, which is the main reason why his fights are usually scheduled in May and September.
In an interview with BoxingScene, Ellerbe said that the reigning pound-for-pound king is always making sure that he'll get a fight on Mexican Holidays -- Cinco de Mayo in May and Mexican Independence Day weekend in September -- mainly because of his Hispanic fans.
"Hispanic fans obviously are a huge part of the boxing fan base, but Floyd has a tremendous global base, not just only with the Americans. Everyone appreciates a great fighter, and that's what Floyd has been able to display," Ellerbe said on Monday.
Ellerbe pointed out that they were surprised how Hispanic/Latino fans mobbed Mayweather during a press tour for the unbeaten champion's fight against Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in September last year. He added that Mexican fans actually showed more support to Mayweather than Alvarez, who is a Jalisco, Mexico native.
"I'll use an example, we were on the Canelo press tour. I was actually quite surprised that the Hispanic/Latino support since once we got to Mexico City the fans actually loved Floyd, more so than their own fighters," Ellerbe said.
The Mayweather-Alvarez showdown shattered records as it became the highest-grossing pay-per-view event of all time after generating $150 million in revenue.
It also netted 2.2 million pay-per-view buys, which is second only to the 2.48 million PPV buys generated by Mayweather's fight against Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. Curiously, the Mayweather-De La Hoya match was also a Cinco de Mayo showdown.
According to Ellerbe, the record-breaking fights are just clear proofs that a huge number of fans know that Mayweather is the best in the sport.
"They actually know the sport," Ellerbe said of Hispanic fans. "A lot of times what's happened in the past is that coming up, fans feel a certain kind of way and people are always going to have opinions. But as a whole, people appreciate what Floyd brings to the sport, not only just the American fans, but all the Hispanic, Mexican, everyone."
In August, Mayweather Promotions renewed their partnership marketing firm Pinta, a company that reaches out to first-generation Hispanics and fully-acculturated Latinos, in the hope of improving the PPV buys of Mayweather-Maidana rematch on Sept. 13.
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