Rumor: Mayweather-Marquez does around 1 million buys

Someone’ll leak the real number, but HBO should be ready to spill the beans within 48 hours if this is the real deal. It’s “rumor” for a reason, obviously. My absolute high-end guess for this fight was the 800-850K that Hatton-Pacquiao did.

Informative, useful, used your handle as the post title.

How did Mayweather cheat? That’s what I would like to know.

I won’t lie: I hope they did a million buys. That would be great for boxing. I also am literally stunned that there’s even a rumor from a solid reporter like Iole that they did this much. Bob Arum was the guy who fluffed up the Hatton-Pacquiao buy number, then went in a cave when it wasn’t quite as big as he expected, even though that fight was a great success. We’ll see if this comes down some (and it almost surely will) whether or not Golden Boy and Mayweather want to do the same thing Arum tried. HBO and Golden Boy weren’t thrilled with Arum for wanting to hide the Hatton-Pac number, since they were all ready to break out the champagne.

The UFC purposely went up against the Mayweather fight to beat him and even showed a chunk on the undercard to get more buys.

UFC had this date booked well before Mayweather-Marquez was moved from July 18 to September 19.

Someone will put the real number out. Arum tried to hide the Hatton-Pacquiao number (about 825-850K) because he had gotten so crazy in the hype portion of the promotion that he said it would beat Oscar-Floyd, which was the pipe dream to end all pipe dreams.

Live tickets are another story. I don’t think anyone doubts they papered that place a little bit. Buffer said the night before at the weigh-in that tickets were still readily available at the MGM Grand.

This is not bad journalism. It clearly states that this is a rumour so is to be taken with a big pinch of salt. Had they posted this as fact then it would be bad journalism.

give the guys a break they are voluntary bloggers who do a great job and they don’t deserve to be called bad journalists for no reason.

I analyzed what effect this would have if true, while never reporting it as concrete. However, it’s not my rumor anyway; it’s Kevin Iole’s.

Why not 825,000?

I figured about 550 for this show and 500 for UFC. I am straight up blown away by the idea of this. Even if it comes in at something like 750-800K, that’s a big, big number, and it leads me to wonder just how huge Mayweather-Pacquiao could potentially be.

I hope we do get theater numbers to see how well that went over. It’d be cool if that became a normal option for people who don’t want to or can’t afford to spend 50 bones on a boxing show.

Would it really be good for boxing if this fight did a million PPV buys?

I think so. I know what you’re saying, but I do think it’s good for the sport. I don’t think a failure in a major fight like this is in any way good for boxing. Boxing’s greatest fight right now is getting the mainstream media to devote some actual coverage again. A weak showing on PPV here, I think, just has the mainstream media responding, “See? Nobody cares.”

From a fan’s standpoint, it was a terrible fight, and certainly not one that is going to garner boxing any new fans.

It was a boring, routine, almost sparring contest-level fight from the standpoint of a big boxing fan, but I watched this fight with people that aren’t really fans, and they were REALLY impressed by Floyd. This has actually happened before when I’ve watched Floyd fights with casual fans, or people who frankly don’t even like boxing. It’s not the same sort of exciting that a truly great fight represents, but Floyd does things defensively that people just don’t see otherwise. His pure athleticism really does impress people, and I think just on that he has the ability to create some fans, though obviously a guy like Manny Pacquiao that fights the way he does is bound to create more, if you can get people to watch.

And I hate to put it like this, but Floyd’s American, and he is by far the biggest American star in boxing. I love how diverse the boxing landscape is, and I love many fighters from all over the world, but people that hear Mayweather is coming back remember him from the Oscar fight and/or the Hatton fight, or even from WWE or whatever, and they relate to him ahead of Marquez a lot more than I think the diehard boxing audience realizes. They don’t know Marquez. They know Floyd. People like winners, and Floyd always wins. I think he comes off differently to people that don’t follow closely than he does to those who do.

no come on. It was a boring fight in some respect, I feel duped in some respects, but it did display one of the greatest defensive talents that we’ve ever seen lace ‘em up. Floyd got hit about three times all night, he’s still fast as shit, I don’t need the $ back.

where does the malice come from? I don’t get it. There’s a few people on here who seem genuinely pissed that this was published here. The first word on the thing is “RUMOR”, and the editor’s note re-asserts that it’s a rumor. What’s this site’s benefit from publishing?

Making Iole as scapegoat and benefiting from his write-up is COWARDICE.

Title starts with “Rumor.” Post ends to reaffirm this. First sentence of the post starts with “Kevin Iole reports.” It’s Kevin Iole’s rumor, as Kevin Iole reported it in Kevin Iole’s column, which is both linked and clearly quoted. We’re just discussing what ramifications this could have, and how good it would be for boxing if this were true.

But hey, sure, if you want.

Fighting isn’t a zero-sum game.

Bingo!

Yeah, that’s what Kevin Iole told me late last night, and I’m working on a story. He also tweeted about it.