Arum sees Pacquiao-Clottey producing 650,000 PPV buys or more
March 18th, 2010
By Esteban Garduno: In the latest boxing news, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he sees the Joshua Clottey vs. Manny Pacquiao bout winding up with no less than 650,000 buys, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Arum thinks that the numbers could end up much higher than 650,000 for the Clottey bout, which would be great news for Pacquiao, because if he can prove that he can bring in huge numbers against an obscure opponent like Clottey, who the public has no clue about, then it means that Pacquiao can bring in equally huge numbers against any fighter that’s selected for him to fight.
Besides that, if the May 1st bout between Mayweather and Shane Mosley wind up doing a lot better than the Pacquiao-Clottey fight, it will make it nearly impossible to get up a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather unless Pacquiao is willing to take less than 50% of the PPV revenue. Putting together a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather is nearly impossible anyway because Mayweather wants Pacquiao to agree to random blood testing, and Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum don’t want blood testing to be a part of any future fights unless the Athletic Commission directs that the testing be done.
That’s very unlikely, but even if one of the commissions do require blood testing, it won’t mean anything unless all states make blood testing to be a requirement. If they don’t, then Pacquiao and Arum, if they wanted, could always fight in another state where blood testing isn’t part of the requirement for boxers.
Pacquiao says that having blood taken from him weakens him, and that is why he doesn’t want to have blood drawn from his body within 30 days of a fight. Blood testing may be a requirement in all states in the U.S. in the future, but by the time that happens, Pacquiao will likely be long gone from the sport.
If the Pacquiao-Clottey fight ends up bringing in over one million PPV buys, that would be incredible because Clottey doesn’t have a huge Hispanic element backing him in the U.S. like Juan Manuel Marquez did in his fight with Floyd Mayweather last year in September. For that matter, Clottey has few fans at all aside from a small handful of hardcore boxing fans who know of him.
The problem for Clottey is before being selected for a fight against Pacquiao, he had never really beaten anyone of note other than Zab Judah and Diego Corrales, both of who were smaller, and well beaten by the time Clottey fought the. Clottey is actually more known for his losses than his wins during his career.
Before getting beaten by Pacquiao in a painfully boring 12 round fight last weekend, Clottey had run out of gas in fights against Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto. He fought well during much of the early going in both of those fights, but faltered down the stretch run when he ran out of gas.
Of the opponents that have been kicked around for Pacquiao’s next fight, he could be facing Antonio Margarito, Edwin Valero or Juan Manuel Marquez. The likely fighter that will get picked will probably be Valero, unless Valero loses his next fight against Lamont Peterson. Margarito would be a problem because he probably won’t get his boxing license back anytime too soon.
Marquez, who many people feel beat Pacquiao twice in his two fights with him, fights for Golden Boy Promotions.
Arum likes to fight guys from his own promotional company Top Rank, so I see Marquez not ending up as an opponent for Pacquiao. Arum would like to match Pacquiao up with Margarito next if possible, but without Margarito getting his boxing license back, that fight probably won’t happen. Valero and Margarito are both Top Rank fighters, so it’s going to be one of these two that get the fight with Pacquiao. Mosley won’t get the fight because he has a rematch clause with Mayweather, so even if he beats Floyd, he’ll still have to fight him next. I think Arum will opt to keep Pacquiao in safe rather than risk him getting destroyed by Mayweather.
Tags: 40 Responses to “Arum sees Pacquiao-Clottey producing 650,000 PPV buys or more”
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What’s the big deal with PPVs? We don’t get anything out of counting them.
What we want is an exciting fight. Defensive boxers are BORING.
MOSLEY vs PACQUIAO – that’s the fight I want to see.
however you analyze it, two non-american fighters doing 650k in PPV’s on american soil are great numbers.
the reason why mayweather do better in PPV is because more people wants to see hi lose.. as soon as he loses that 0, he is history.. pacquiao is still a draw with a win or lose
I think both sides are going overboard with this. the Floyd-mosley fight will do at least close to 2 million.
But regardless, neither fighter is going to get away with demanding more than 50%. Before the Cotto fight, Floyd had justification to warrant a bigger split. After the Cotto fight, all Pac did was justify his right to half of the pot. Nothing more. The public is not going to allow either camp get out of the fight demanding more than 50% of the pot. The money is not going to be an issue anyway. Pac willing to do random testing is going to be the sticking point.
Ryan bringing out the charts man! I like it hahaha.
Ryan…Cotto had the belt when he fought Pac, but did that make him the bigger draw? Nope..therefore the fact that Pac is the titleholder means nothing. What we know is that Floyd’s PPV numbers are better than Pacs….period. There is no argument that you can make that I cannot shoot holes through. Do your best sir..and I will do mine and you will come up on the short end of the stick.
After Mosley,If Mayweather will not fight Pacquiao,I’m sure he will give Mosley a rematch because he has no where to go,yet he will be exposed,if their fight is boring people will not be interested to see a rematch,if he fights Clottey,I’m sure he can’t generate 650grand ppv buys,so may be he will pick Matthew Hatton or Saul Alvarez and GBP will do a tremendous job promoting it,otherwise Mayweather will be exposed as not a draw if he fight an ordinary opponent.
Mayweather has outdrawn Pacquaio 2:1 with common dance partners. He did 2.4M with de la Hoya, while Pac did 1.2M. He did 915K with Hatton, while Pac did 850K. And he did 1.05M with Marquez, while Pac did 400K in he and Marquez’s rematch. The first fight was on HBO WCB. I predicted Pacquaio-Clottey would do a million, but it doesn’t look like its gonna reach that number. 650K-700K is a solid number, but is a bit of a disappointment. I think the show Pac is equal or bigger draw than Mayweather, it had to do close to the 1.05M that Mayweather-Marquez did. Marquez has the Mexican following, but is unknown in the mainstream. Plus, Pacquaio-Clottey recieved much more support in the hardcore fight community, so I think it basically equaled itself out. Pacquaio had a better dance partner in Cotto, and they outdid Mayweather-Marquez by about 200K buys. Cotto and Mosley are about eqaul in star value, and Cotto might be slightly bigger, about the same amount that Marquez is Clottey. So I think for Mayweather to prove his case, his show with Mosley will have to outdo Pacquaio-Clottey by at least 200K buys,if not more. And I personally don’t think that will be a problem. I think Mayweather-Mosley does 1.5M. Whether the Pacquaio following wants to face it or not, Mayweather has pretty much proven to be the bigger draw.
Guys
I made a chart……
http://www.liftingfaces.com/uploads/may_pac_ppv.jpg
with spaces, in case the url gets trashed:
www . liftingfaces . com /uploads/may_pac_ppv.jpg
a few notes on this chart…
1. manny and floyd were nearly identical in the three PPV fights preceding ODLH. FACT!
2. manny and floyd were domestically nearly identical in their PPV fight with Hatton. FACT!
3. manny did more buys with cotto than mayweather did with JMM. FACT!
so what is the big question? i’m not saying mayweather isn’t an elite, top draw. i’m saying that they are more than worthy of a 50/50 split, and manny has the WW crown right now, so he is top dog in the division.
FACT!!
…ryan
Are you people still trying to argue that Pac is the biggest draw in boxing?? It has been said time and time again that Floyd has the higher PPV numbers when you compare their 3 common opponents. Somebody please explain to me how Manny can even be considered the bigger draw? Now all you Pac fans are talking about 650K are good numbers because Clottey was some obscure opponent yet you were the same people that were talking about how Manny was able to fill the 51,000 seats. If you are able to get 51,000 people to come see you, you should be able to generate more than 650K PPV buys. The fact that 51,000 people went to see the fight was due in large part to the promotion of the actual stadium not the fight so giving Pac credit for drawing people to go see him fight in Dallas was not about his ability to generate people which is what the PPV numbers clearly show.
ok ryan one thing i want to ask you… how come mayweather vs hatton did more ppv buys and why did mayweather vs marquez do so many more buys if mayweather isnt the bigger draw.. it just doesnt make sense to me i wont even throw in de la hoya
BTW, the Clottey fight was shown for free in the UK. No PPV.
@wowza
In the US, Mayweather/Hatton did 850-870K (there are some varying numbers for some reason). The Pac Man/Hatton fight did 825-830K (again varying reports).
The reports I found showed Mayweather/Hatton pulling in between 1.25-1.5 million PPV buys in the UK and the highest number I could find for Pac/Hatton in the UK is 800K.
Sorry, I will try to find the officials, but it is apparent that it wasn’t all that close in the UK.
luvboxing,
Are you kidding me?
Mayweather vs Clottey would sell higher?
I highly doubt it.
The only fight that could sell more than 2 million
is Pacquiao vs Mayweather
The point is Floyd bringing up the steroid issue has put a cause in his
Good shout about there not being a Pac-Mos fight due to rematch clause….Nobody else seems to have picked up on that.
I wana see Pac-Val, it will be a great fight almost defo ending with a KO, I see both fighters on the floor in the early rounds, much like Valero-Ortiz…Will be most exciting fight in years.
Yeah right! All in your dreams, because the truth of the matter is, there is now a new sheriff in town who doesn’t need the services of Floyd. Who will Floyd fight next? Where will he go? Floyd’s B.S. and boringness alienated a lot of casual fans. And if Floyd still thinks he is still a draw, wait after the Mosley fight, then we will see who will be the biggest draw between him and Manny.
Pacquiao’s camp have to stop claiming that they are the bigger draw cause the numbers aren’t supporting that. If Mayweather vs Mosley does close to 2 million ppvs, I think that would finally shut them up.
everyone keeps saying mayweather got bigger ppv numbers with marquez because marquez is a big draw. the highest ppv marquez got was 400,000 when he fought manny. floyd sold over a million fighting marquez. mosley floyd will be a big draw because supposedly mosley is a big draw. mosley has preaty much been fighting on regular hbo for the last few years so obviously he is not that big of a draw. floyd would have sold over a million fighting clottey without all the gimmicks like selling tickets for less then 30 dollers. and having one person buy 30,000 dollers worth of tickets. floyd is the ppv king and manny floyd will not happen floyd will not give him a 50/50 split and mannys next fight will not sell 500000 ppv. that light of stardom is starting to fade. the fighting loosers of big fights instead of the winners wont work too much longer
Gave cotto the beating of his life? Are you on drugs? Obviously you R not a boxing fan or ocassional viewer because if you seen the way Margarito beat the lights outta Cotto 2 years ago while undefeated and on his prime you wouldn’t have made such a stupid comment. And against de la hoya, he lost the fight before it even began needing IV needles to rehydrate him and still come in 2 pounds lighter than Pacroid I mean pacquiao even though he was supposed to be the bigger fighter and being close to 36 years old doesn’t help either
Pacquiao beat the three great Mexican legends- Morales, Barrera,Marquez then put Diaz to sleep, then made Dela Hoya retire on his stool, then gave Cotto the worst beating of his career, and now put on a spectacular one-man show nonstop for 12 rounds against supposedly the toughest welter weight Clottey. He was selected fighter of the year for the third year in a row, named fighter of the decade, made history by winning titles in 7 weight divisions. He is also among the highest paid athletes in the world. No boxer has made more than he. He is the current #1 P4P fighter. In comparison, Mayweather fought only once since his unretirement. A lackluster fight with Marquez. Now he expects to get a higher cut than Pacquiao? He talks brave and says he going to whip Pacquiao. It’s all connected. The blood test is part and parcel. See the connection? He is making it so that the fight won’t happen! He agreed to Pay Pacquiao $10,000,000 for each pound he is over the limit. SO what? The fight won’t happen. Won’t happen. Won’t happen. Won’t happen. Won’t happen. That’s his mantra he recites every night before falling asleep. Won’t happen. “I’m going to ask 70%, yes, maybe even 85%. Won’t happen. Won’t happen. Won’t happen….”
tru,
Really? I better catch you up then cuz Floyd has had 40 fights.
Can anyone tell me who won the Pacquaio,Clottey fight???? I fell asleep.
luvboxing,
I’d check your Hatton figures, those were very close.
@boxingfan
The writer is saying that Mayweather has destroyed Pac Man in PPV sales in their last three common opponents. IOW, DLH, JMM & Hatton. It isn’t close really.
I think it is funny that anyone things that Mayweather v Mosley is going to do anywhere near a million buys. It will go over 2 million easily.
Love him or hate him, Mayweather is the PPV king and he would have easily pulled a million versus Clottey.
@ Ryan
Right on the bucket!
errr I doubt it will boil down to money issues. Sorry for the double negative there.
To expand on boxing fan’s statement, Mayweather’s last three opponents weren’t as superior as Pacquiao, so that’s a leading statement there buddy. Nice try though.
Mayweather a fighter much superior to Pacquiao’s last three opponents? Of Pacquiao’s last three opponents Mayweather lost to one by a one point split decision,another he never fought and even retired to keep from fighting and third was the jr. welter champ who he was bigger ,stronger and faster than. Man you are an idiot to be writing stuff like that matter of fact.
Oh one more thing, and correct me if I am wrong. But I think this was Clottey’s first PPV fight ever, no?
Mosley BETTER bring a much higher level of viewership as a proven and establishd PPV fighter. Sure he’s not as in-demand as he was before, but when you couple him with Mayweather, you have two big-name fighters who should bring big-time numbers.
So I’m back to my original statement that Mayweather vs. Mosley needs to double whatever Pacquiao vs. Clottey does if Floyd even thinks about asking for more than 50% of a May/Pac purse split.
…ryan
@ Dwight… I’m pretty sure Valero is a Top Rank fighter, he’s fighting Lamont Peterson at 140 next. That should be a real test for him and moving up in weight, Peterson is a tough, complete fighter and only has 1 loss to the king of the division in Bradley. A Pacquiao-Valero matchup would be easy to put together and would pack in 70,000+ to Cowboys stadium, 1 million buys, and would be a treat for the fans… it’ll end in a violent mid-late fight knockout.
Arum also said earlier this week that the prefight sales on the East Coast beat the record set by DLH-Mayweather and he’s expecting the final number to be in the 900,000 range… which would be unreal against an unknown in Clottey.
Well Roach said “we’ll fight him for free” and “winner take all.” I don’t think the fight not happening won’t boil down to splits and money issues. At least I definitely hope not. I say they just bust a Hopkins/Jones Jr. and winner by KO gets 70% of the purse. Nothing wrong there, don’t think Mayweather would agree though.
@RB
Maybe I exaggerate a little, but I say double because Mosley should add a couple hundred thousand as you say, and Mayweather would have to definitively prove that he is a bigger draw on his own. Manny can basically say without argument that almost all of the buys for his fight were for HIM and not Clottey, right?
And let’s not assume a Top Rank vs. GBP fight isn’t going to happen anymore, that’s ludicrous thinking.
Mayweather and Arum have a personal history, there’s no proof that Top Rank doesn’t want to do business with GBP. Arum will look for big money fights, and sure… if he can keep it in the family why not?
I don’t hear anyone complaining that Mosley and Mayweather are both under the GBP umbrella? I personally don’t really care about that anyway.
…ryan
Why would they need to double that? I get that Mosley is a bigger draw than Clottey, but Mosley has never sold a lot of ppv. At most Mosley adds a couple hundred thousand sales. So lets just say Pac-Clottey does 800k. In my opinion if Floyd-Shane does a little over 1 mil than 50/50 is still the way to go. However, if Floyd-Shane sells around 1.5-1.75 million (which I think it will) Pac is going to have to settle for less than 50% if he wants the fight.
the only chance for a pacman fight is against margocheato because as you fail to note edwin valero is also signed to golden boy and de la hoya already said if pacman wants to fight any of his fighters he will have to undergo random blood testing
In any case be it 650,000 or 1 million buys, Floyd/ Mosley will beat it handily and it would be best if Sugar knockout Floyd so there will be no rematch and a Pacquiao/Mosley fight will be the easiest to set up.
@lex
Let’s wait for final numbers on Pacquiao/Clottey. And if Mosley vs. Mayweather is only slightly higher than Pacquiao vs. Cotto (and May wins of course), don’t be surprised to see the 50/50 split still part of a Fall deal between Mayweather and Pacquiao.
I’m impressed if Pacquiao vs. Clottey gets anywhere CLOSE to 1 million buys. And you should be too.
…ryan
@wowza
NP. I don’t know how much smoke Arum is blowing, but “a lot higher” could put it closer to a million if we take him at his word. I’ll stick to conservative interpreations and say 700-750k buys and still that would be highly impressive given the anonymity of Clottey and the fact that Manny is very much an ESL champion, something that held many other stars back from higher glory (Trinidad springs to mind).
…ryan
Mayweather has got millions more PPV buys combining their three fights against common opponents. Roach and Arum said Cotto is a bigger draw than Mosley. So, when Mayweather-Mosley gets more than Pacquiao-Cotto, or any other fight Manny has ever been in, it would be totally unrealistic to demand a 50/50 split with Mayweather. May 1st will easily double the Clottey fight, the only question is will it triple it?? If it does triple it, there is no way Manny gets a 50% cut of the purse. How can Manny demand a 50/50 split when the other fighter’s last PPV tripled his last one, and who has a combined millions more buys against only three common opponents? Honestly, if Manny is serious about wanting to fight Mayweather he has to face reality, and the reality is that Mayweather is by far the bigger draw. There is no question about it.
Thanks once again Ryan for giving ALL THE INFORMATION.
Yeah, I would say Clottey is far less known than Marquez or Cotto, so the numbers are encouraging.
And to give full disclosure, here is Arum’s full quote regarding the PPV buys:
“We’re not giving out any numbers yet because we have very little [information] from the cable systems, which you need. The cable numbers are very fragmented, so it could be a few days. But the number that you can’t go any lower than is 650,000 for the fight. That is the worst it would do, but it should be a lot higher.”
My feeling is that Mayweather and Mosley will need to double that number if either of them want anything close to a 50/50 split against Pacquiao this Fall. You agree?
…ryan