Latest Promo For Alvarez-Golovkin Bout Takes Viewers Back To Glory Days Of Boxing

The latest commercial promoting the upcoming Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin fight transports fans back to the '30s, the "glory days" of boxing, according to Lance Pugmire of the L.A. TIMES. Producer-director Leigh Simons "dreamed up the set after it was suggested first" by Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya. De La Hoya said, "You want to tell a story of when fighting was fighting. ... I love that whole era, like the ‘Cinderella Man’ Prohibition days when fighters were fighters and it was survival." Simons said, "I wanted to do a vintage-inspired promotion because this is a throwback fight. It’s a throwback because you have the best fighters in the world fighting each other." The commercial begins with a narrator "discussing the legacy of great fights, then features Alvarez and Golovkin entering the gym with gear and equipment of the ’30s era." The other boxers in the gym "stop as the legends also look at the pair." Alvarez and Golovkin "meet in the center of the ring, each throwing a simultaneous punch that’s stopped before meeting their chins, a moment intended to heighten anticipation for the bout at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas." De La Hoya: "That final scene is so important. (Simons) has to capture it perfectly. When those punches stop, I want people to think, ‘I have to buy this'" (L.A. TIMES, 8/31).

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE: ESPN.com's Dan Rafael noted that with the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor fight "in the books ... boxing fans can turn their attention to the real fight" -- Alvarez-Golovkin. The fight has been "largely overshadowed" since Mayweather-McGregor was announced in June. However, De La Hoya and GGG Promotions' Tom Loeffler "got cracking on Monday" to promote their PPV. There is three weeks "to rev the promotion into high gear, and it began with Alvarez and Golovkin conducting open workouts before a crowd of more than 1,000 fans outdoors at L.A. Live" (ESPN.com, 8/28).