Pacquiao-Rios PPV buys pales in comparison to his Marquez-IV bout

Manny Pacquiao, from the Philippines, right, punches Brandon Rios of the United States during their WBO international welterweight title fight Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013, in Macau. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Top Rank honcho Bob Arum said that the pay-per-view buys from the Manny Pacquiao-Brandon Rios clash last November is “in the area of 500,000,” which is less than half of what was generated in the Filipino boxer’s fight in 2012.

While Arum still could not provide an exact figure, the Hall-of-Fame promoter told ESPN.com’s boxing writer Dan Rafael that the PPV buys won’t be significantly less or more than 500,000.

“We ran all our numbers on something a little less than 500,000 but figuring we’d do around 500,000, and that’s what we’re going to wind up doing. It means 490,000 or 510,000, something like that,” Arum said.

It paled in comparison to Pacquiao’s mega-fight against Mexican rival Juan Manuel Marquez in December 2012, where he absorbed a stunning knockout in the sixth round, which got 1.15 million PPV buys.

His fight against the bigger and younger Rios in Macau last November 24 was the first HBO PPV event outside the United States, where Pacquiao fought most of his storied career.

Arum, though, had anticipated a fluctuation in numbers as he arranged the fight halfway across the world, but still called the sold-out event a “big success.”

“The [pay-per-view] industry told us when you do an event that far away you can expect to do maybe 30 percent of what you would ordinarily do on the fight. We did a lot better. We performed better than that, so I think it was a big success. We had a huge audience on television in China,” said Arum.

But Pacquiao is going back to the US next year, as he is  scheduled to fight in April 12 in the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, with an opponent yet to be named.

Related stories

MGM for Pacquiao’s next fight; foe unknown

Tax court resets hearing of Pacquiao petition to Jan 16

Court gags Pacquiao, BIR over tax suit

Pacquiao staggered by BIR tax punch

Pacquiao leaves talking on tax issue to lawyer