Clausura 2022 Wrap: Playoffs and ‘relegation’ stories
“Canelo” Álvarez fight impacts wildcard games
Mexican boxing champ Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez makes his next title defense on Saturday, May 7. “Canelo” is a national hero and his fight against Russian Dmitri Bivol will be must-watch TV across Mexico.
TV networks Televisa and TV Azteca will both be televising the fight and neither wanted to see their Liga MX playoff broadcasts compete with the fisticuffs. That produced a bit of juggling ahead of Wildcard Weekend.
Liga MX rules allow the TV networks – not the clubs themselves – to have final say when playoff games will be scheduled and three of the four teams hosting wildcard games this weekend have deals with the national networks.
Televisa holds the broadcast rights for Cruz Azul and shares some rights for Guadalajara while TV Azteca owns the rights to televise Puebla home games and shares access to Chivas home games. The fourth host – Monterrey – is linked to Fox Sports.
Originally, Puebla and the Chivas were going to host their matches on Saturday night, but TV Azteca vetoed that idea, preferring not to lose “fútbol” audience to the boxing match. When the Pumas petitioned the Chivas to move the game to Sunday (UNAM has a Wednesday appointment in Seattle where they’ll play the Sounders in the Concacaf Champions League final) to allow its players an extra day of rest, Guadalajara quickly acceded.
Then TV Azteca switched both of its playoff games to Sunday: Puebla will now host Mazatlán FC at 5 pm local time, while the Chivas welcome the Pumas at 7:15 p.m.
Next. Bedraggled Pumas pounce when it counts. dark
Televisa was satisfied with the Guadalajara switcheroo and they then scheduled the Cruz Azul-Necaxa match for Saturday afternoon (5:45 local time) which in turn allowed Fox Sports to start the Monterrey-Atlético de San Luis match at 8 pm, plenty of time to wrap up the game before the opening bell in Las Vegas.