Pacquiao-Rios to go for $5 PPV to Chinese audiences

By Boxing News - 05/23/2013 - Comments

pac006By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum plans on selling the November 23rd fight between Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) and Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) for $5 to Chinese boxing fans in pay per view, according to Tempo.com.ph.

The fight will be taking place at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, in Macao, Macao S.A.R., China. The $5 may not seem like a lot of money to U.S boxing fans, who pay from $60 to $70 to see Pacquiao’s fights on PPV, but with China’s huge 1.34 billion population, Arum, Pacquiao and Rios could rake in the cash from the Chinese PPV money alone.

If they can get 100 million Chinese to pay to see Pacquiao fight Rios then they’ll make huge, huge money. Of course, Arum will have to include some of the Chinese fighters on the card to help attract interest and right now it doesn’t look as if China’s biggest boxing star Zou Shiming will be on the card. If not, then the PPV numbers might not be as good, but we’re still talking about a lot of money that be hauled in from the Chinese audiences.

Arum will be taking Pacquiao and Rios on a three-city tour of China to market their November 3rd fight. They’ll be traveling to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, in addition to staging a tour of several cities in the U.S.

Being a foreigner, Pacquiao won’t have to pay the high U.S. taxes that he gets from the loot from U.S PPV. Rios, unfortunately, will have to pay the high taxes.

This all sounds good for Pacquiao with him making more money, but unfortunately he may not have too much time left in his career because he’s starting to age and show signs of deterioration. Pacquiao might even lose to Rios by another knockout like the one Pacquiao suffered last December.

I’m not sure that the Chinese audiences will want to keep paying $5 to watch Pacquiao on PPV if he’s going to lose every time out. Arum is going to have to be wily about the kinds of opponents he puts Pacquiao in with if he wants to take advantage of all the Chinese money. It’s no good if Arum is marketing a fighter around China who has a three-fight losing streak.



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