By Tan Wang
I know it’s a tough pill for some of the Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao fans to swallow but Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the biggest Pay Per View attraction in boxing today. Pacquiao’s fanbase mainly consists of Filipinos and Filipino-Americans, he doesn’t have the cross over appeal that Mayweather does in the States.
Whatever you think of Floyd ‘Money” Mayweather, there is no denying that his HBO boxing PPV numbers are far superior than Manny Pacquiao’s.
Pacquiao did 700,000 PPV buys for his HBO fight against Joshua Clottey on March 13 at the Dallas Cowboys stadium, Floyd Mayweather Jr. did around 1.4 million Pay Per View buys when he fought Shane Mosley on May 1. It’s clear Mayweather’s PPV numbers against Mosley trumped Pacquiao’s numbers against Clottey. That’s why they call him Money May because he brings in the big bucks.
I’ve heard countless reasons on why the Pacquiao – Clottey PPV didn’t reach 900,000 to one million buys; Clottey wasn’t a draw; Filipinos don’t order Pay Per Views they just watch illegal streams or stuff over 50 guests in a house to watch; there was no HBO 24/7 and little promotion for the fight. Those reasons are debatable but the fact of the matter is Mayweather did better numbers.
After comparing their last PPV fights why does Manny deserve something better than a 60-40 split? He is not the bigger draw on American soil or internationally like Bob Arum claims.
I am Chinese-American, and I don’t know many Chinese who know who Manny Pacquiao is let alone follow boxing, they mainly watch basketball.
When Floyd Mayweather Jr. showed up in England to promote his comeback fight against Juan Manuel Marquez, he had droves of British boxing fans come to see him during his promotional tour. When Manny Pacquiao went to England to promote his fight against Britain’s own Ricky Hatton, the only people who showed up to see him were the Filipino workers from the hotels and malls in the area. The British didn’t come out for Pacquiao like they did for Mayweather when he showed up. If Pacquiao had some international appeal it would have shown then but it didn’t.
We’ve heard the stories how the entire country of the Philippines shuts down just to watch Manny Pacquiao fight but those people get to watch it for free and if they did have PPV the profit would be little because the value of the Philippine peso is weak. American PPV is what counts and that’s where Pacquiao makes the majority of his cash and Floyd Mayweather is the king of American PPV.
Those arguing that Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn’t deserve the bigger share of revenue are either Pacquiao fanatics or biased Floyd Mayweather haters. You can’t count on a bias opinion, from a business negotiation standpoint Mayweather deserves more than Pacquiao and the numbers don’t lie.
I am curious to know why many of the Pacquiao fans think Manny deserves a 50-50 purse split in this fight because I don’t see any logical reason why. Pacquiao’s PPV numbers were decent but are nothing compared to Floyd’s HBO PPV numbers.
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