Photo by AP
MANILA—The sleeper of a bout between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley turned out to be a pay-per-view blockbuster.
The fight recorded a phenomenal minimum of 1.3 million PPV buys, according to Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum in a Los Angeles Times report on Monday.
“It will be something over 1.3 [million], as high as 1.4 [million],” Arum told Lance Pugmire. “Based on what we have and certain projections, we know it’s over 1.3 million.”
Co-presented by Showtime and CBS, Pacquiao-Mosley is the pound-for-pound king’s biggest PPV hit ever, surpassing the 1.25 million buys his eight-round stoppage of Oscar De La Hoya generated on Dec. 6, 2008, and the 1.2 million buys his 12th-round knockout of Miguel Cotto netted on Nov. 14, 2009.
Pacquiao’s 12-round domination of Antonio Margarito last Nov. 13 also netted 1.14 million buys, making him the first boxer to exceed the million PPV mark for four straight years.
In between, Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton in 2009 notched 850,000 buys, while Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey in 2010 drew 700,000 buyers.
Former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson managed to breach the one-million PPV mark three years in a row.
The 1.3-million buys further accentuated Pacquiao’s reputation as a PPV superstar. His last six bouts, the first five of which were televised by HBO, garnered an average of over a million buys.
The latest figure (1.3M) was also a vindication of sort for Arum who decided to move over to CBS from HBO because of the former’s much bigger subscriber base.
Boxing analysts agreed that Arum’s intuition turned out to be right.
“I’m delighted with the numbers, very pleased with how everyone did their jobs,” Arum said.
The resounding PPV success of Pacquiao-Mosley, as well as the big revenues at the gates, could earn Showtime a chance to televise Pacquiao’s trilogy with Mexican great Juan Manuel Marquez on Nov. 12 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.