Pay-per-view price stiff for Pacquiao vs Broner

If you’re planning to watch the Showtime main event between Manny Pacquiao and Adrien Broner from Las Vegas live on local cable television, you’ll be paying P949 for the pleasure.

The price is not a bargain for the bout on Jan. 20, Philippine time, but consider this:

Fans in the United States are shelling out the big bucks to see Pacquiao (60-7-2 39 KOs) fight there for the first time since 2016 when he defeated Jessie Vargas on pay-per-view also in Vegas to defend his secondary WBA world welterweight title against Broner (33-3-1, 24 KOs).

For the record, Keith Thurman is the WBA’s real welterweight titleholder.

Pacquiao’s last two fights have been on ESPN and on ESPN+ app for $9.95 a pop, so many consider the $74.99 PPV subscription to Pacquiao-Broner a bit hefty.

This price tag matches the one for Deontay Wilder versus Tyson Fury last month. That event exceeded prefight projections and topped out at around 325,000 buys.

When Pacquiao fought Vargas two years ago, the bout did 300,000 buys. It would be interesting to see how the 40-year old Filipino ring icon would draw boxing diehards this time around. His tiff with Bronder at MGM Grand Garden Arena is on the same night as Henry Cejudo versus T.J. Dillashaw on UFC in New York.

With barely two weeks to the fight, Pacquiao said “he just wants to share a good life outside the ring with Broner,” who still had to resolve legal problems before and after their encounter.

To spark “a boxing renaissance” in the country, the Los Angeles-based Global Boxing Organization (GBO) is set to launch an Asia Pacific Boxing Caravan sometime in April in Davao City.

The GBO’s operating arm, Red Boxing International led by Filipino businessman Rey “Cacoi” Rodis II, a former assistant to Hollywood legend Al Pacino, will promote and stage fights in the region with the aim of producing a new crop of Filipino fighters in the mold of Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire Jr., Donnie Nietes and others.

Former sports columnist Fred Lumba, GBO chair, reports that the organization also aims to revive the dying business of boxing promotions in the country by tapping young Filipino promoters “who deserve to get a profitable share from their undertaking.”

“To achieve this, GBO and Red Boxing are looking for progressive partners, including the Games and Amusement Board,” according to Lumba.