Mayweather-Marquez Tops 1 Million PPV Buys

The numbers are in for the Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez pay-per-view. And those numbers are good.

Multiple mainstream media outlets are reporting that the Mayweather-Marquez did over 1 million PPV buys. The card took in $52 million as a result, making it the leader in the clubhouse thus far for 2009.

It's a truly astonishing number for several reasons:

• It was up against UFC 103: Don't forget how much the media made of this fact. I'm not sure what numbers UFC did, but it's safe to say they didn't top 1 million buys. Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports claims industry sources say the boxing card won by a two-to-one margin. It's not apples to apples, as the UFC card was pretty weak compared to some of its other offerings of the past year or so. But it's still interesting, to say the least.
• Floyd and JMM don't have long histories as top PPV draws: Sure, Floyd was involved with the biggest PPV event of all time, but he was up against arguably the top draw of all time, Oscar De La Hoya. Marquez has fought Manny Pacquiao and not come close to this number.
• Ticket sales didn't set the world on fire: Guess we'll never know how slow sales were for the original summer date, but reports were that they weren't good. And the announcers were still touting available tickets during the weigh-in. Yet plenty of people shelled out money to watch on TV.
• The economy is still in the crapper: You know, just in case you forgot.

If Floyd's retirement was an "absence makes the heart grow fonder" gambit, it's safe to say it worked. Assuming the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight that fans everywhere are dreaming about eventually gets to the negotiating table, Team Mayweather's position in any proposed split just got quite a bit stronger too.

Posted by The Franchise

Impressive PPV Buys Total for the Dream Match

According to Dan Rafael on espn.com, the Dream Match sold a nice amount of ppv's with a total of around 1.3 million buys. Uatu will have to mildly apologize, as that is a higher total than he expected. But, it is nowhere near the total for the World Awaits.

What can be made of this amount?
Perhaps fans had started to see that Oscar is not what he used to be.
Maybe the economy had fans thinking the fight was no longer worth the money.
Manny may not be as huge of a star as Floyd Mayweather.
Floyd may have made a better B - side as an undefeated, and practically peerless, as well as flamboyant villian with interesting family subplots.
After the one-sided outcome, possibly Manny will become appointment viewing for some fans, with his aggressive and crowd pleasing style and pleasant personality.

Wherever boxing goes from here, from an economic standpoint, it is obvious that Oscar's star power exiting will be missed tremendously.

A Warning Sign on Dream Match Buys?

There is a certain sports bar chain, that has locations in 25 or so of the 50 states here in America, that usually shows major ppv fights. The location nearest to Uatu has a 100% record of showing all of the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and NCAA football and basketball games. This restaurant has a mixed record for showing ppv's. The major fights they show with no problem. PPV's with Oscar, Mayweather, Roy Jones, and Hopkins are always shown. They don't show mid-level fights like Cotto-Mosley, or small ppv's like Pacquiao-Diaz or JMM's. They did actually show MAB vs. Juarez though. They also show all of the major UFC ppv fights.

In an interesting move, that could be a sign of the economic times, or lack of interest for this fight, or time of the year, or previous business generated to this specific location, or some other unknown reason, they have decided not to show the Dream Match.

So at the very least, in Uatu's location, there is some doubt that the Dream Match is a guaranteed attraction. If this was a 80's-90's Tyson fight, forget about it, it would be shown without a doubt.

There is a local, non-chain sports bar right across the street from Uatu's apartment, that shows most ppv boxing and UFC fights, even the mid-level ones like Cotto-Mosley. Uatu will keep an eye out to see if they show the Dream Match or not.

Another PPV Buyrate Comparison - Bernard Hopkins

B hop is also often looked down upon as a draw. Here are his numbers, some good, some bad:

Pavlik - 190k
winky - 305k
tarver - 350k
taylor II - 410k
taylor I - 370k
oscar - 1million
trinidad - 475k

Floyd Mayweather--Underrated Draw?

Often Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather is somewhat downplayed as a draw. Perhaps he doesn't draw viewers that are proportional to his skill, but take a look at his ppv numbers:

Hatton - 850k
De La Hoya - 2.15million
Baldomir- 325k
Judah - 374k
Gatti - 365k

Now take a look at Manny Pacquiao's numbers. Manny is often portrayed as a huge draw, probably because he is so famous in his home country, in relation to Floyd's relative fame here in the States:

JMM - 400k
MAB - 350 k
Morales I - all three reported between 345-360
II - 345-360
III - 345-360
Diaz - 250

Now, this isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison. There are differences in the date of the fights, sometimes the price of the fights, their weight classes and the most obvious, the opponents in the fights. Still, this is just something to think about. Just a thought that maybe Floyd doesn't get as much credit as he should for being the star that he is. On an absolute basis, Floyd has been the bigger draw. Also, Manny may be a slight bit overrated as a star here in the States.

PPV Numbers for Undefeated

According to a press relase from HBO PPV, 'Undefeated' did 850,000 buys. A good number, no doubt, but as Uatu predicted, well under the 1 million buy mark. Still an impressive year for both HBO and the Pretty Boy. For HBO, eight events, selling 4.8 million buys, and generating $255 million in revenue.