Source: LA Times
Not bad. Not bad at all. This is only the fourth time in history that a non-heavyweight fight has done a million buys on pay-per-view. The others are also all Oscar (Mayweather, Trinidad, Hopkins), which probably went without saying.
It's basically exactly what I expected. It's not the 1.5 that Kevin Iole said they were tracking, but 1.25 million is still a ton of people, and makes it easily the #1 pay-per-view of the year for not just boxing, but all combat sports.
Here are the boxing numbers for 2008:
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Main Event | Date | Distributor | Buys* |
---|---|---|---|
Roy Jones Jr. v. Felix Trinidad | 01-19 | HBO | 500,000 |
Kelly Pavlik v. Jermain Taylor II | 02-16 | HBO | 250,000 |
Juan Manuel Marquez v. Manny Pacquiao II | 03-15 | HBO | 400,000 |
Manny Pacquiao v. David Diaz | 06-28 | HBO | 200,000 |
Miguel Cotto v. Antonio Margarito | 07-26 | HBO | 450,000 |
Juan Manuel Marquez v. Joel Casamayor | 09-13 | Golden Boy | 100,000 |
Kelly Pavlik v. Bernard Hopkins | 10-18 | HBO | 195,000 |
Joe Calzaghe v. Roy Jones Jr. | 11-08 | HBO | 225,000 |
Oscar de la Hoya v. Manny Pacquiao | 12-06 | HBO | 1,250,000 |
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Oscar-Manny just destroyed everything else. Here are a few things we learned this, year in my view:
- Joe Calzaghe, great as he is, is not a draw in the States. Period.
- Manny Pacquiao, great as he is, can't sell a mismatch like the one with Diaz.
- Kelly Pavlik is not yet a PPV draw. The Hopkins fight was disappointing, but B-Hop has never been a big drawing card, either. The rematch with Taylor, I'm sure they expected more than 250K for a rematch of one of the best and most talked-about fights of 2007.
- If you make a great fight (Cotto-Margarito, Marquez-Pacquiao II), the fans will buy it.
- People had one last gasp of love for Tito Trinidad.