Legendary boxing promoter, Bob Arum, made a surprising decision when he decided to move the Manny Pacquiao vs. Sugar Shane Mosley welterweight showdown to HBO’s rival network Showtime.
Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley have both fought the majority of their biggest fights on HBO and many fight fans naturally felt that the fight would be on HBO pay-per-view, but didn’t expect the sudden announcement by ESPN’s Dan Rafael, who broke the news on Friday, that the May 7th clash between Pacquiao and Mosley would be on Showtime pay-per-view instead of HBO pay-per-view.
Showtime hasn’t done any major pay-per-view events in recent years, but before the HBO Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. PPV record of 2.4 million buys, Showtime held the record for the highest PPV buys for a single event with the Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield rematch which did 1,990,000 buys.
Bob Arum hasn’t released an official statement on the Showtime deal, but Manny’s adviser Michael Koncz has already confirmed to AOL Fanhouse that the fight is indeed going to be carried by Showtime and CBS which is Free network TV will help promote the fight with heavy marketing and possibly a 24-7 style weekly build up show leading up to the fight.
If CBS does put on a weekly 24-7 type series to hype up the Pacquiao vs. Mosley showdown it would help expose more people to the sport of boxing and could transfer over with more pay-per-view buys for the fight.
Got an Opinion? Submit Your Articles and Press Releases to be posted on NowBoxing.com
*Please refrain from leaving any Racist, Profane or Derogatory comments*
