Pacquiao-Mayweather fight generates biggest sponsorship revenue

Official poster of the fight advertised at the MGM Grand.

Before Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. square off on May 2 at MGM Grand Garden Arena, their fight’s hype alone has already broken many records.

One of which were the revenues for the sponsorship of the Fight of the Century.

In a report by Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, the welterweight unification megafight had five title sponsors put in a staggering $13.2 million in ads alone.

Top Rank President Todd duBoef told Rafael the mind-numbing figures have shattered the previous records that Mayweather fights generated which were estimated at $3.5 million to $4 million.

Lucia McKelvey, Top Rank’s executive vice president of marketing since 2011, was aware of the record and was not shy with Rafael in expressing the achievement.

“We killed it, we blew it out of the water,” McKelvey said, who worked with Bruce Binkow of Mayweather Promotions on the sponsor deals.

Of those millions in dollars in revenue, two companies gave it their all to become the prime sponsor.

And those companies were beer companies.

Tecate, which has sponsored Pacquiao’s fights and Top Rank’s, edged out Corona, a Mayweather bout sponsor, with its $5.6 million bid over their rival’s $5.2 million.

As a result, Tecate has its logo plastered in center-ring for the fight, be prominently displayed on fight posters, and its beer will be sold at the venue.

“We have been sponsoring boxing since 2007 so we have been associating ourselves with boxing and been waiting for so many years for a fight like this,” Tecate brand director Gustavo Guerra told ESPN.com. “We know in the past we have had great fights but nothing is going to be compared to what is already called the fight of the century. We wanted to increase our brand awareness and we will achieve it with this fight.”

“It is like the Super Bowl of boxing, a gigantic sporting event. It’s good for us. It’s about credibility. We cannot have the luxury of being out of this fight. This is very important for us.”

Other sponsors for the fight will also have their logos displayed on the mat and on pay-per-view graphics.

Paramount Pictures/Skydance Productions is promoting two sequels in two iconic movie franchises, “Terminator Genysis” and “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.”

Weinstein Company will also promote their film “Southpaw” which stars Jake Gyllenhaal.

Trailers of the three films will be shown between fights in the pay-per-view telecast.

Also sponsoring the fight are Philippine telecom giant Smart Communications and the Mexican Tourism Board with their slogan “Mexico, Live it to Believe it.”

Top Rank and Mayweather Promotions set the minimum bid at $1 million.