SOURCE: By Abac Cordero (The Philippine Star)
MANILA, Philippines - The Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley bout that was lambasted for lack of raw action so unlike the previous fights of the Filipino icon may yet go down as the richest, biggest in terms of pay-per-view buys as figures started to trickle in one month after the Las Vegas showdown.
Top Rank’s Bob Arum yesterday said the PPV sales for Pacquiao’s May 7 victory over Mosley has already exceeded 1.3 million buys.
“What we have is 1.3 million. Now, how much more we are over 1.3 million we don’t know,” the Top Rank president told The STAR.
He said as it is, Pacquiao’s recent performance will go down in the record books as his biggest so far in terms of PPV sales, with much more to expect in the future.
At $54.99 pop, Pacquiao-Mosley did a staggering $71.4 million (P3 billion), eclipsing Pacquiao’s previous best of 1.25 million hits for his 2008 win over Oscar dela Hoya.
Pacquiao was guaranteed $20 million for the Mosley fight, and with the tremendous PPV success he could earn or could have earned as much as $35 million (P1.5 billion).
Arum recently told ESPN.com that Showtime, which presented the match to millions and millions of viewers worldwide, is still in the process of finalizing things.
“What we don’t have are some of the smaller cable systems. What I’m saying is I know we go to the bank counting a little over a 1.3 million,” he said.
“I know we’ll go up from there. How much up, I have no experience in this. This was all done for us in the past by HBO, which had experience, charts and all kinds of data from past fights to compare the fight to.”
Showtime aired Pacquiao-Mosley, but it’s no guarantee that the same outfit with very strong links to CBS would land Pacquiao’s trilogy with Juan Manuel Marquez in November.
Arum had said that whoever presents the better deal, whether it’s Showtime or HBO, will get the Marquez fight, one that should do way better than the Mosley fight.
Arum said Showtime hasn’t done a fight as big as a Pacquiao fight for some time, making it quite difficult for them to arrive at the final PPV numbers.
“Showtime can’t do it because they haven’t done this in so long. They don’t have the database that you need, but I’m feeling very, very happy because I know I’ve done at least 1.3 million,” he told ESPN.com.
Pacquiao should be even happier than his promoter, in that the fight against Mosley, which for a lot of people had been decided even before the opening bell, sold as much.
Last month’s gate receipts at the MGM Grand hit $8,882,600. It now stands as the 14th highest attendance sales in Nevada’s boxing history.
It only says a lot about Pacquiao’s greatness, popularity and drawing power, in that each fight he does from hereon should easily break the one million mark - whoever, wherever, whenever.
Pacquiao, the fighting congressman, was Page 1 news over the weekend, not for his strong stand on the very controversial Reproductive Health Bill, but for his latest acquisition.
The report said Pacquiao has purchased a home in Forbes Park, the most affluent community in the country, for P388 million (roughly $9 million), and is very happy with it.
Well, there’s nothing he can’t buy anymore.
Top Rank’s Bob Arum yesterday said the PPV sales for Pacquiao’s May 7 victory over Mosley has already exceeded 1.3 million buys.
“What we have is 1.3 million. Now, how much more we are over 1.3 million we don’t know,” the Top Rank president told The STAR.
He said as it is, Pacquiao’s recent performance will go down in the record books as his biggest so far in terms of PPV sales, with much more to expect in the future.
At $54.99 pop, Pacquiao-Mosley did a staggering $71.4 million (P3 billion), eclipsing Pacquiao’s previous best of 1.25 million hits for his 2008 win over Oscar dela Hoya.
Pacquiao was guaranteed $20 million for the Mosley fight, and with the tremendous PPV success he could earn or could have earned as much as $35 million (P1.5 billion).
Arum recently told ESPN.com that Showtime, which presented the match to millions and millions of viewers worldwide, is still in the process of finalizing things.
“What we don’t have are some of the smaller cable systems. What I’m saying is I know we go to the bank counting a little over a 1.3 million,” he said.
“I know we’ll go up from there. How much up, I have no experience in this. This was all done for us in the past by HBO, which had experience, charts and all kinds of data from past fights to compare the fight to.”
Showtime aired Pacquiao-Mosley, but it’s no guarantee that the same outfit with very strong links to CBS would land Pacquiao’s trilogy with Juan Manuel Marquez in November.
Arum had said that whoever presents the better deal, whether it’s Showtime or HBO, will get the Marquez fight, one that should do way better than the Mosley fight.
Arum said Showtime hasn’t done a fight as big as a Pacquiao fight for some time, making it quite difficult for them to arrive at the final PPV numbers.
Pacquiao should be even happier than his promoter, in that the fight against Mosley, which for a lot of people had been decided even before the opening bell, sold as much.
Last month’s gate receipts at the MGM Grand hit $8,882,600. It now stands as the 14th highest attendance sales in Nevada’s boxing history.
It only says a lot about Pacquiao’s greatness, popularity and drawing power, in that each fight he does from hereon should easily break the one million mark - whoever, wherever, whenever.
Pacquiao, the fighting congressman, was Page 1 news over the weekend, not for his strong stand on the very controversial Reproductive Health Bill, but for his latest acquisition.
The report said Pacquiao has purchased a home in Forbes Park, the most affluent community in the country, for P388 million (roughly $9 million), and is very happy with it.
Well, there’s nothing he can’t buy anymore.
