De La Hoya-Mayweather Sets Live Gate Record For Boxing Event

Upcoming De La Hoya-Mayweather Jr. Bout Sets Live Gate Record Of $19M

Tickets to the Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas sold out in three hours, generating a live gate record for a boxing match of $19M. The figure broke the previous high of $16.9M for the ’99 Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield fight (THE DAILY). In a sports section Cover Story, USA TODAY’s Chuck Johnson reports the fight will be seen in 176 countries and “could become one of the highest-grossing fights in history,” approaching the $100M mark. De La Hoya will earn at least $25M and Mayweather at least $10M for the fight, and those amounts could “possibly [be] more depending on [PPV] buys.” The final episode of a four-part HBO reality series on the fight called “De La Hoya-Mayweather 24/7” is scheduled to air Thursday, and HBO Sports VP/Publicity Ray Stallone said that the series has averaged 1.2 million viewers for first-time showings. With “The Sopranos” and “Entourage” as lead-ins, Stallone said it “exposed a lot of young viewers to Oscar and Floyd. That’s what boxing needs” (USA TODAY, 5/2).

LARGE PPV INTEREST EXPECTED: While the ’02 Lewis-Mike Tyson fight is the highest-grossing PPV event ever with $112M in revenues, the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Gough & Szalai report HBO expects at least 1 million PPV buys for De La Hoya-Mayweather, which at $54.95 is “among the steepest ever for any PPV event.” HBO Sports Senior VP/Marketing & Operations Mark Taffet said, “We fully expect [the fight] to take its place as one of the biggest events in the history of [PPV].” HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg said the fight “will tell us where the [PPV] business is.” The ‘97 Holyfield-Tyson fight generated 1.99 million buys, according to research firm SNL Kagan, and Lewis-Tyson generated 1.95 million buys (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 5/2).

BANKABLE STAR: In this week’s SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, John Ourand reports with this fight, De La Hoya “is expected to become the highest-grossing attraction in [PPV] history.” He has brought in $492M to date, ranking behind just Tyson and Holyfield (SBJ, 4/30 issue). Taffet said, “People write all the time about how they can’t believe baseball players are making $16[M] and $17[M] for a season. Oscar De La Hoya makes that in one night’s work. He’s the best franchise in history without a doubt” (N.Y. POST, 5/2). The chart below lists De La Hoya’s top-selling fights in terms of PPV buys.

TOP OSCAR DE LA HOYA PPV EVENTS
YEAR	OPPONENT	PPV BUYS	PPV REVENUE
'99	Felix Trinidad	1,400,000	$71.4M
'04	Bernard Hopkins	1,000,000	$56.0M
'03	Shane Mosley II	950,000	$48.4M
'02	Fernando Vargas	935,000	$47.8M
'06	Ricardo Mayorga	935,000	$47.7M
'97	Pernell Whitaker	720,000	$28.8M
'00	Shane Mosley I	590,000	$29.5M
'99	Ike Quartey	570,000	$25.7M
'97	Hector Camacho	560,000	$22.4M
'98	Julio Cesar Chavez II	525,000	$23.6M

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS: Meanwhile, the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Carly Mayberry reports around 20,000 fans will pay $50 to watch the fight on closed-circuit TV in several Las Vegas hotels (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 5/2). MGM Mirage Dir of Race & Sports Book Operations Robert Walker said that betting on De La Hoya-Mayweather is “expected to amount to several million dollars” at MGM Mirage properties alone, “approaching or exceeding the handle generated” by the second Tyson-Holyfield fight in ’97. Walker: “People see this as the biggest boxing match in a long time, and no one’s sure when another one is going to happen, so people are betting accordingly” (LAS VEGAS SUN, 5/1).

De La Hoya Close To Becoming Highest-Grossing PPV Attraction

THE FIGHT THAT SAVED BOXING? De La Hoya and Mayweather both appear on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated under the header, “The Fight To Save Boxing,” marking the first time a boxer has been featured on the SI cover since Tyson on May 20, 2002 (THE DAILY). TIME’s Sean Gregory writes De La Hoya-Mayweather “has the potential to remind the world why boxing was once a sport that mattered.” The match offers a “compelling contrast in both personality and fighting styles, plus a healthy dose of family psychodrama” (TIME, 5/7 issue). In Las Vegas, Jeff Haney wrote, “Media coverage of the buildup to the fight ... has focused on a common theme: Boxing has its troubles, but here’s a fight that presents an opportunity for the sport to save itself” (LAS VEGAS SUN, 5/1). The AP’s Tim Dahlberg said, “Boxing is starved for a big event, and they’ve done a good job of selling this as a big fight. It has a lot of the elements — good vs. evil, the best in the sport vs. the guy who wants to be the best. This definitely qualifies as a megafight” (REVIEW-JOURNAL, 4/29). Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said, “We want this fight to go down as the night that saved boxing” (USA TODAY, 5/2). But in DC, Michael Leahy wrote De La Hoya is “the last of boxing’s reliable big-time draws. When he retires, boxing will have seen its last mega-fight for a long while, and the sport will face more problems than ever” (WASHINGTON POST, 4/29).

DEMO-LITION: USA TODAY’s Johnson notes mixed martial arts is “another challenge as boxing strives to regain mainstream relevance,” but Greenburg considers the two “vastly different sports.” Greenburg: “The demographics are showing to be quite different, as well. [MMA] is attracting a much younger audience. I don’t think there’s competition between the two. [MMA] and boxing is no different than the NFL competing with [MLB]” (USA TODAY, 5/2).

WELL-TIMED CAMEO: De La Hoya made an appearance on ABC’s “George Lopez” as Dr. Tony Tovar, head of sports medicine at St. Luke’s. De La Hoya’s character was part of a golf foursome that included a trash-talking Lopez. Lopez: “Instead of six years of medical school, you should have spent more time at the driving range.” De La Hoya: “You know, I’d trade my best day on the golf for the chance to help someone lead a pain-free life.” Lopez: “Yeah, really? Sell it somewhere else, sister” (“George Lopez,” ABC, 5/1).