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Manny Pacquiao is officially set to face Chris Algieri on November 22 in Macau, with the fight carried in the States on HBO pay-per-view. I asked this afternoon on Twitter how likely folks think they are right now to buy this fight with the $70 price tag once it rolls around, and early response wasn't good:
@scottchristBLH I will pay someone $10 to illegally stream it for me.
— Mookie Alexander (@mookiealexander) July 16, 2014
@scottchristBLH below 0%.
— Tim Hocking (@TodoCorazon17) July 16, 2014
@scottchristBLH 100%. I mean, 0% today, 100% by the time it starts.
— Daniel Roberts (@ironmikegallego) July 16, 2014
@scottchristBLH only if I hit lotto between now and then
— ADW (@StillUnknown85) July 16, 2014
This has been a rough year for boxing on pay-per-view, as the majority of the fights offered so far have underperformed, including Mayweather-Maidana, Pacquiao-Bradley II, and Cotto-Martinez. The Canelo-Angulo fight in March did a nice number given the expectations, and we'll see soon how Canelo-Lara performed.
There's more pay-per-view coming, too, as Mayweather-Maidana II is up on September 13, with an early push to bring more attention and hopefully sell the rematch better than the first fight, and we've got Pacquiao-Algieri now to go with a likely fall return for Canelo Alvarez, too.
Has the pay-per-view market become saturated once again? Are the matchups just not compelling enough? Are people just a little burnt out on the Mayweather and Pacquiao sagas, in particular?
How likely are you to buy the Pacquiao-Algieri card, based on your feelings about the fight right now?