With Floyd Mayweather latest outlandish request for 100 million dollars destroying any real possibility of a fight taking place between the two, at least local residents and boxing fans will find out who wins the popularity contest between Pacquiao and Mayweather. You might be thinking as you are reading this;” Isn’t it obvious?” No it isn’t.
In this case we have a unique opportunity to compare apples with apples when we evaluate how many pay per view buys each of super stars generate facing the same opponent. Last year Floyd Mayweather broke a one hundred million pay per view buys mark when he faced Sugar Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. This year, on May 7th, pound for pound king, Manny Pacquiao will face the same opponent at the very same venue. Will he be able to do better?
No matter how off the wall Floyd sounds during fight promotions, he never misses an opportunity to thank HBO. The man who calls himself “Money” knows quite well where money comes from. He understands that HBO 24/7 has turned him into a star he is today. So following four episodes of 24/7, HBO Pay Per View televised Floyd Mayweather vs. Shane Mosley last October. Floyd’s dominance over Mosley was not as much of a surprise as huge pay per view numbers the fight generated.
Fast forward, May 7th, 2011. Manny Pacquiao’s welterweight title defense against Shane Mosley at the same venue will be televised by Showtime Pay Per View. According to Bob Arum twenty eight million homes in US subscribe to HBO and twenty one million homes subscribe to Showtime. Normally it would be a disadvantage, but CBS network came on board to help promote Pacquiao event.
” I am very excited to fight on May 7th,” said Pacquiao during LA’s press conference at the Beverly Hills Hotel:” Because it’s covered by Showtime and CBS. More boxing fans can watch the fight, even not in Las Vegas live, but on television. I want to thank CBS and Showtime for helping us. This is a good fight on May 7th.” Seems like congressman Manny Pacquiao also understands where money comes from.
“We have an opportunity like we never had before, “said promoter Bob Arum addressing the media in Philippines this week:” Because the element of the promotion that’s key is CBS.” So what is so special about CBS? The network will promote Manny Pacquiao fight during highly popular March Madness college basketball games. ” Every one of the games on CBS they are doing a promo on the fight. That’s incredible .Every game has over ten million people watching,” continued Arum:” The night of the final four. It’s Saturday night. They are doing a half hour special on the fight. There will be twenty million people watching. HBO 24/7, if we had 750 thousand people watching it was a lot.” This almost sounds like a revolution as far as promoting fights and reaching out to a wider audience. Could this be a mark of return of boxing to free network television?
“CBS has 115 million homes,” continued Arum:” People pay nothing. It’s free over the air television. That’s going to create a tremendous amount of interest that we have never had before. It could do numbers like we have never seen before on pay per view.”Would this help Pacquiao to beat his rival Mayweather in pay per view numbers?
“This is his opportunity to seize the moment and make more money than he ever dreamed possible,” said Arum about his prized fighter and close personal friend, Manny Pacquiao who is not worried about the money.“My concern is how to make people happy,” said Pacquiao addressing the media. He will give it his best shot on May 7th.
Contact Igor Frank at axident@pacbell.net
Comments