By: Sean Crose
Those fight fans hoping for a drastic cut in Pay Per View prices are going to have to wait. Although next week’s Showtime PPV card featuring the Charlo brothers isn’t on the scale of Mayweather-Pacquiao, or even Canelo-Golovkin, the “suggested” price of the event is between fifty and one hundred dollars. Showtime announced today that: “The SHOWTIME PPV event, CHARLO DOUBLEHEADER, is available for purchase at a suggested retain price (SRP) of $74.95 and includes six compelling fights, five of which are championship bouts.” Needless to say, the announced cost of viewing the event was immediately met with groans on social media.
Not that the CHARLO DOUBLEHEADER is a bad card. Not by a longshot. In fact, it’s quite strong. However, many – if not most – fans want big names to appear if they’re to be happy spending upwards of fifty dollars for a PPV event. Both Charlos, Jermell and Jermall, are must see TV for boxing lovers. Yet must see TV and must see PPV are two entirely different things. As things stand in the late-to-post Mayweather era, fans haven’t proven eager to cough up money to watch anyone not named Canelo, Joshua, Fury or Wilder.
Plus, there’s other PPV cards this year that will be attracting attention. Gervonta Davis will headline a card this autumn when he goes up against popular Leo Santa Cruz. Then, closer to the holidays, Erroll Spence Jr will return to the ring for the first time since his accident to face Danny Garcia. A few years back, Premiere Boxing Champions – which, along with Showtime, is the force behind these cards – would have headlined all these main events on basic cable. Those days, however, are not these days. Thus, the price tag. All things considered, next week’s CHARLO DOUBLEHEADER may prove to be a tough sell.
Again, though, the card is strong. Very strong. Unlike many PPV events, this one promises a good night of boxing. This isn’t a top heavy presentation, where the main event is essentially the only draw. This is a full night of serious fights. Not only will the 30-0 Jermall be defending his WBC middleweight title against the extremely dangerous 13-2 Sergiy Derevyanchenko, younger brother Jermell, at 33-1, will face off against the 20-1-1 WBA, WBC, and IBF super welterweight champ Jeison Rosario. The undercard is just as promising.
“Luis Nery will battle Aaron Alameda for the vacant WBC Super Bantamweight World Championship in the co-feature,” Showtime states in its press release, “while former unified champion Danny Roman faces former champion Juan Carlos Payano in a WBC Super Bantamweight title eliminator.” While the CHARLO DOUBLEHEADER isn’t featuring household names, it is featuring major contests between top level fighters…who may well be household names in a matter of time.
The CHARLO DOUBLEHEADER will air live from the Mohegan Sun Arena September 26th starting 7 PM Eastern Time.