While Saturday's Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez fight "isn't expected to match" the PPV performance of the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao bout from May, industry observers have believe it "will finish as the second-most lucrative PPV event of the year," according to R. Thomas Umstead of MULTICHANNEL NEWS. The fight also marks the "last under the tutelage" of HBO Sports President Ken Hershman, who is leaving at the end of the year. Hershman said boxing is "far from dead and it's a strong category," noting the 4.7 million PPV buys for Mayweather-Pacquiao. Regarding Mayweather's recent retirement, Hershman said fighters will "continue to emerge," and there is "always someone to replace the former biggest star of the sport." Hershman said of his time at HBO, "It's been a great experience, and I had a great 20-plus years in and around the biggest fights and the biggest boxers in the sport. I really feel very blessed to have had an amazing career being a part of all the great content over the years. This is a nice way to go out." He added of his future endeavors, "I'm working on a number of things that I'm not ready to talk publicly about yet, but there are a lot of exciting things for me in my new chapter -- I have a lot of career left in me" (MULTICHANNEL NEWS, 11/16 issue).
