Floyd Mayweather's unanimous decision over Marcos Maidana last Saturday drew 925,000 PPV buys, which is "25,000 better than their May fight," according to sources cited by Kevin Iole of YAHOO SPORTS. A source said that PPV sales on DirecTV were 5-10% "higher than Mayweather-Maidana I," while AT&T U-verse sales were up 20%. Showtime earlier this year announced it would not release PPV numbers. Mayweather leading up to the fight made some "tasteless comments" regarding the Ray Rice elevator video, causing CNN's Rachel Nichols and ESPNW's Sarah Spain to call for fans "to boycott the fight." However, it "doesn't appear to have had any impact." The fact the fight did not hit the 1 million mark "shows the difficult climate that exists to sell" PPV cards. Mayweather has only reached that mark "in one of his four fights on Showtime" -- last year's fight against Canelo Alvarez drew 2.2 million buys (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/18).
DISREGARDING HIS HISTORY: The NEW YORKER's Kelefa Sanneh wrote despite serving 90 days in jail on domestic violence charges in '12, it is "hard to imagine that echoes of Mayweather's past transgressions had much effect on the audience for last Saturday's fight." Boxing fans "aren't too troubled by bad behavior, which is why Mayweather's time in jail didn't affect his earning power once he got out." A villain "can be as big an attraction as a hero," and fans find it "hard to resist watching the best boxer in the world, no matter how appalling his crimes." Sanneh: "Mayweather might well see a disappointing pay-per-view buy rate for his Maidana rematch, but it won't be because viewers decided that he didn't deserve their money; it will be because not enough of us thought that Maidana deserved him. If the next fight looks like a good one, we'll all come flocking back" (NEWYORKER.com, 9/17).
