UFC President Dana White said that the over/under on total PPV buys for the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor boxing match is 4.9 million, which would be 300,000 buys "more than the record" for the Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight in '15, according to Darren Rovell of ESPN.com. WME-IMG co-President Mark Shapiro said that ticket sales, which last week were reported to be greater than $60M, are "imminently trending to a record-setting level for combat sports," and prefight hype will "only stir the drink further." Shapiro said of the $72.2M gate from the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, "It's impossible for us to not break the record" (ESPN.com, 8/21). Showtime Sports EVP & GM Stephen Espinoza said that Twitter estimated that the level of social media interaction and engagement for the upcoming fight was "about five times bigger" than the level of the conversation around Mayweather vs. Pacquiao "at a comparable point." Espinoza: "Just because the conversation is five times bigger doesn't mean the buys will be. But it's certainly a good indicator at this point that people are interested enough to be discussing it on Twitter, which is the first step in intent to buy" (WSJ.com, 8/21).
