Mayweather-Marquez PPV Draws 1 Million Buys, $52M In Revenue
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Mayweather-Marquez Fight Generates One
Million PPV Buys, $52M In PPV Revenue |
HBO Sports said Friday that the September 19 Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Juan Manuel Marquez welterweight fight generated 1 million PPV buys and $52M in PPV revenue. That marks the most buys for a PPV boxing event in '09 and only the fifth time in boxing PPV history that a non-heavyweight bout attained the 1 million-buy mark. Of the total buys, 525,000 were from cable homes and 475,000 from satellite homes (HBO). ESPN.com's Dan Rafael wrote the fight was a "giant success on pay-per-view -- especially considering it went head-to-head with a UFC pay-per-view card." Many industry experts "had expected a pay-per-view buy rate in the 600,000 to 700,000 range" for the boxing match (ESPN.com, 9/25). The AP's Greg Beacham wrote the PPV sales "apparently weren't even harmed" by the decision of Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) to "show the fight in 170 movie theaters around the country, a strategy that worried" HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg. GBP CEO Richard Schaefer said that the fight "played to about 80[%] capacity in theaters" (AP, 9/25). But USA TODAY's J. Michael Falgoust reported the fight "wasn't as big of a success" at the gate, "especially considering that it was Mexican Independence weekend with a popular Mexican fighter moving up to face the former pound-for-pound king." Mayweather-Marquez earned a $6.8M gate with 12,006 sold, but "more than 2,600 tickets went unsold and 845 seats were comps, or giveaways" (USATODAY.com, 9/25).
SPARRING OVER NUMBERS: YAHOO SPORTS' Kevin Iole wrote the Mayweather-Marquez PPV results "trounced UFC 103." UFC does not release its PPV figures, but indications from industry sources are "strong that the boxing card had a better than a 2-to-1 advantage," and Schaefer suggested that UFC 103 "barely topped 100,000 buys." Schaefer added Mayweather "has proven with these numbers that he's the No. 1 pay-per-view star in the business." UFC President Dana White said that UFC 103 "did far more than 100,000 buys," but he conceded that Mayweather-Marquez "scored a heavy victory." White: "Bottom line, we did a good number and we still got our asses kicked." Still, Schaefer "questioned the legitimacy of UFC pay-per-view results that were leaked." Schaefer said of White, "I'll make him a challenge. I am willing to hire one of the top three accounting firms, at my expense, and do an audit of his pay-per-view results. They are nowhere near what is put into the public. There is talk that UFC 100 did 1.6 million, but it barely broke a million. I am willing to pay to have the audits done to prove this" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/25).
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