Ticket sales for next month’s Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov are reportedly poor for their August 3rd main event fight at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
The stadium’s seating capacity is 22,000, and many tickets need to be sold for that main event.
The undercard is one of the best this year, with two fights that could be headliners, but it looks like fans aren’t excited by Crawford’s match.
Lackluster Enthusiasm for Crawford’s Bout
If this doesn’t change by late July, the organizers may need to cut ticket prices or do something drastic like move the Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz vs. Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela fight to the headliner. That’s arguably the best fight on the card, in my view.
Staging the event in Southern California is not an ideal location for Crawford vs. Madrimov as a headliner. Having former three-division world champion Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), an Omaha, Nebraska native, fighting WBA junior middleweight champion Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs) in Los Angeles was a bad idea.
While some hardcore boxing fans are talking about Crawford-Madrimov, there’s not much buzz about this fight on social media. Fans seem more interested in WBA light welterweight champion ‘Pitbull’ Cruz’s title defense against knockout artist ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela. That is an excellent fight.
The fight that would resonate with fans in the Los Angeles area is Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KOs) vs. Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela (13-2, 9 KOs). Fans would want to see it.
Crawford’s Post-Spence Slump
Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) seems to have reverted to his pre-Errol Spence Jr days, and it doesn’t look good. Crawford was never a PPV attraction before his fight with former IBF/WBA/WBC welterweight champion Spence last year on July 29th, 2023, on Showtime pay-per-view. The Spence vs. Crawford event brought in 700,000 PPV buys, which are excellent numbers for this era.
Crawford’s inactivity for an entire year, enjoying his victory lap after the Spence victory, may have hurt his popularity. In hindsight, Crawford should have stayed active, fighting two or three times in the last twelve months rather than sitting on the sidelines.
The only conclusion I can draw from the reports of low ticket sales for Crawford-Madrimov is that Crawford lacks the popularity in the Southern California area to be headlining against Madrimov, who is not well-known to casual fans.
Potential Solutions
Easily, the best fix to ramp up ticket sales would be one of these two options:
- Cutting ticket prices: That’s an easy move to drive ticket sales, but it might not be the solution.
- Swapping out the main event: Moving Cruz vs. Valenzuela to the headliner will increase interest from Southern California fans.
- Focus promotion on the Pitbull-Valenzuela fight: Changing tactics for the marketing of the event to the more compelling fight between Cruz and Valenzuela might work to attract fan interest.
If Crawford were facing the ‘ Mexican Monster ‘ David Benavidez, fans in Southern California would likely be eager to purchase tickets. That fight would attract massive interest from Los Angeles fans because it would put Crawford in a situation where he’s facing one of the best fighters in the 168-lb division.
The winner would then face superstar Canelo Alvarez for the undisputed super middleweight championship.
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