Rafael: Pacquiao-Hatton did about 825-850K domestically
I don't know if anyone else posted or addressed this, but Dan Rafael, in his blog, mentioned that Arum wants to keep it under wraps:
For whatever reason, Arum doesn't want to give them out, nor will he allow his partners at Golden Boy or HBO PPV to disclose them. What does he have to hide, anyway?
However, being a resourceful kind of guy with pretty darn good sources in the boxing business and television industry, I got the number, Arum's secrecy be damned. From what my sources tell me, the fight sits at about 825,000 domestic pay-per-view buys with the likelihood that when they're all counted, the total will reach 850,000 or more.
Arum's tactics seem, to me at least, to be a move in fear of giving Floyd any leverage on possible future neogotiations, saying that his fight with Hatton did better, etc.
[The rest is from SC, making this a collaborative piece!]
I think my favorite part here is this quote from Arum: "We did very well. Everyone involved in this event did a good job, but it's nobody's business what the numbers are but ours and the fighters. I'm not gonna release the figures."
In other words, "F*** me, this wasn't the 'record-breaker' I made it out to be and now I look like a dope, so shut up and leave me alone about it!"
The fact is 825-850,000 domestic buys is a remarkable number. As Rafael notes, it is the second-biggest boxing PPV ever that did not have Mike Tyson, Oscar de la Hoya or Evander Holyfield (behind the 915K that Mayweather-Hatton did).
Rafael also says that Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy and HBO's Mark Taffet are going along with Arum's bizarre request to not release the numbers and neither are thrilled about it. Schaefer, who co-promotes Hatton, and HBO must be thrilled with the number, while Arum talks Pacquiao up as if overnight he became Muhammad Ali mixed with Oscar de la Hoya and probably finds it hard to swallow the fact that not every single person on earth was terribly captivated by his eight-round whipping of an old-looking de la Hoya in December. Ask casual fans that watched that fight what they saw -- it's often a lot different than what "we" saw.
Pacquiao is the Top Rank meal ticket, but no matter how successful he is, when you combine a lot of factors (one of which is the recession), he's not going to be Oscar de la Hoya on PPV, at least not immediately, and I think this might bother Arum a little bit. The speculation that he might've wanted to use the Manny-Ricky number to leverage Floyd could also be true.
But he has to realize something else: All Pacquiao did was raise his profile as a "can't miss" fighter with the Hatton bombing. And another thing: He's not going to leverage Mayweather, who promotes himself and like it or not (and I don't, really, because it possibly prevents great fights) he's damn savvy enough to know that they need him for X fight or Y fight. The truth is, if Arum, Pacquiao and Roach want Floyd bad enough, they'll have to back down a little when negotiation time comes.
I say congratulations to Top Rank, Golden Boy, HBO, Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton on the great success of this fight, because they deserve it. Sorry, Bobbo.
FanPosts do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors of Bad Left Hook or SB Nation. They might, though.
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Sounds about right to me but what do I know.
If it’s true, or if Floyd thinks it’s true, Arum’s plan didn’t work
by lcollins1 on May 15, 2009 12:00 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
This is sounds like a pretty dumb move by Arum. If you go around bragging about “2 million” buys, guess what? People are going to look into to it.
Anf its no like 825K is a small number. Just blame the gap on the recession like everyone else and move on.
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
by jrok on May 15, 2009 8:58 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Man, was the most typo-ridden thing I’ve ever written. It sounds like I’m from outer space.
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
by jrok on May 15, 2009 9:05 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I’m all for collaboration!
Thanks for the bump SC
by missmanners on May 15, 2009 12:24 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Yay. Looks like my 830,000 prediction wasn’t so wrong.
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." - Sir Winston Churchill
by FlyByKnight on May 15, 2009 2:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I think it is a very valid point that missmanners brought up… Arum doesn’t want to hear it that PBFvs Hatton had more buys than Manny/Hatton…
"Boxing is dirty," said Casamayor. " The day I’m not ready to be a dirty fighter is the day I don’t fight anymore because it will mean that I have no heart for it anymore."
by Zocalo on May 15, 2009 7:30 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
He wants to get Pac the same split he got for Pac Hatton
Or a 50-50 split anyway. He doesn’t want to announce something that hurts his own leverage, but he’s the one who put himself in this position. If he wanted to hedge, he should have shut the hell up until numbers ACTUALLY came in.
Vogt early, Vogt often.
by Brickhaus on May 15, 2009 11:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
so i guess its safe to say, based on these numbers, that Mayweather is a bigger star than Manny. i am glad that the Pacman hype has died down just a little bit, hopefully this news will allow the fight between these two to actually happen. but i still have my doubts that Arum wants to risk his cash cows’ star power by putting him in there with Mayweather who IMO will easily win a decision.
"King of NBA Live '09"
by #5mmafan on May 22, 2009 6:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
i hate to tell you, but the pacman hype has just begun
The Dude Abides
by battle axe of doom on May 22, 2009 6:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

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