The backlash Canelo Alvarez has received on social media from fans angry at his choice of Edgar Berlanga as his opponent for Sept. 14 could negatively impact pay-per-view sales for the event.
As Mike Coppinger points out, fans may not think the Canelo vs. Berlanga fight is worth buying on PPV and may choose to pirate the copy to watch it for free.
Balance mismatches and challenging fights
Fans would like to see WBA/WBC/WBO super middleweight champion Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) fight David Benavidez instead of Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs). Fans see the Canelo vs. Berlanga fight as a cherry on top, similar to his last fight with Jaime Munguia.
If people feel that Canelo will be fighting big-budget fights like Berlanga for the rest of his career, they will stop spending their hard-earned money on the Mexican star's PPV bouts.
That's why Canelo has to balance the mismatches by occasionally taking tough fights against opponents he's not expected to beat.
Fighting Terence Crawford wouldn't be enough to achieve that goal, as Canelo would still be considered the favorite to win, and even though Crawford would be moving up two weight classes, few fans would think he had a chance.
Canelo needs to include fights against the following types of fighters:
– David Benavides
– David Morrell
–Artur Beterbiev
– Dmitry Bivol
Social media backlash and PPV impact
“This is going to be a big break for Berlanga. I don't think it's all about social media, but the backlash that I've seen on social media has been pretty significant, people knew this was coming, and the criticism has come in waves,” commentator Chris Mannix said on his YouTube channel about the Canelo Alvarez vs. Edgar Berlanga fight on Sept. 14. “Do you think this is a fight that sells at any level?”
Fans don't see Berlanga as a credible opponent for Canelo because his resume is full of terrible opponents and he is less deserving of this bout than a fighter like Benavidez.
Canelo should not have picked Berlanga, if he wanted an easier opponent he should have picked Diego Pacheco or Cristian Mbili, anyone but Berlanga would be fine as Berlanga is considered a fake.
“I think this is one of those cases where social media is pretty representative of what the public thinks,” Mike Coppinger said, “It's just a hard sell. I haven't seen the odds yet, but I think Canelo will be in the -2000 or -2500 range.”
There are a lot of things that go against the Canelo vs Berlanga fight, the public hates it and there is a UFC event taking place at the Sphere in Las Vegas on the same night, September 14. Canelo doesn't seem to care about what the fans think, which is a shame because unless Berlanga's fans in New York buy the event in droves, his event is unlikely to be a success.
“We all know what's going to happen on fight day. The positive for Canelo is that he finally gets his first knockout since knocking out Caleb Plant in November of 2021,” Coppinger said. “I think Edgar Berlanga will do a great job selling this fight.”
Canelo may not get the knockout. He didn't knock out Jaime Munguia and is the same type of fighter as Berlanga, with a similarly exaggerated record against weaker opponents. Canelo took a lot of damage in the Munguia fight and is clearly not the same fighter he was when he became the undisputed super middleweight champion two years ago.
“He's charismatic and willing to do media interviews, which is important,” Coppinger said of Berlanga. “Canelo doesn't have to carry a promotion. People are going to watch Canelo Alvarez no matter what. I think what hurts him is that there are a lot of boxing fans out there who will buy a PPV if they think it's worth it. If it's not worth it, it's easy to steal, so they're going to steal it.”
Berlanga will no doubt put a lot of effort into promoting this fight, knowing that more buys will mean more PPV profits, but still, many fans will choose not to purchase the event because they have no interest in the matchup.
“I think there will be a surge in bootlegs depending on how people view this fight and what they think about it,” Coppinger said. “If they think it's worth it, they'll buy it. What really stands out is that Benavidez is in it. If Benavidez wasn't in it, I think it would have been different.”
The importance of taking risks
Again, if fans believe that the rest of Canelo's career will be about picking weak fighters who haven't proven themselves worthy of a title fight, they will either not watch his fights or find another way to watch him fight for free.
Canelo needs to start taking risks like he did when fighting Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto, Erislandy Lara and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“Now people are saying, 'He's never going to fight Benavidez,' and there may be some backlash and protests,” Coppinger said.
