Pacquiao, Floyd PPV buys can lead to fight

Manny Pacquiao is indeed, boxing’s top draw today. His welterweight title fight against Miguel Cotto last week in Las Vegas generated 1.25 million buys or around $70 million in domestic pay-per-view revenue as announced by HBO Friday. Prospect of the figures further increasing is likely as all buys aren’t officially audited yet.

The 30-year old boxing icon from the Philippines scored a bloody 12-round stoppage of Cotto to wrest the World Boxing Organization (WBO) 147-pound title. The PPV numbers easily made it the most watched boxing pay-per-view this year, surpassing the 1.05 million buys generated by Floyd Mayweather Jr’s comeback fight against Juan Manuel Marquez two months ago. It was the second time in a year Pacquiao drew that many buys in PPV sales. His eighth- round technical knockout of Oscar De La Hoya December last year also drew 1.25 million buys, while his brutal second-round knockout of Ricky Hatton six months ago earned 850,000 buys. Cotto, a former Olympian from Puerto Rico, also did his own share to make the fight a success, drawing an all-time record for buys on his country with 110,000 units sold. Bob Arum, whose Top Ran Promotions put up the historic fight, estimated Pacquiao will end up earning $22 million, while Cotto is likely to get $12 million. Combined with the Marquez-Mayweather PPV sales, it marked the first time in a decade that two fights generated at least 1 million buys in the same year or since the Felix Trinidad-Oscar De La Hoya welterweight unification match and the Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield’s highly controversial heavyweight draw in 1999 last made the feat. The back-to-back 1 million buys generated by the two fights involving Pacquiao and Mayweather could lead to a possible showdown between the two which as of this early, is being projected by many as the biggest money fight ever. “They have to deliver. The American public wants that fight," said HBO sports president Ross Greenburg. – GMANews.TV