Ellerbe: We [Mayweather] don’t worry about PPV numbers, that’s your jobs

By Boxing News - 08/27/2015 - Comments

Floyd Mayweather and Andre BertoBy Chris Williams: Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe let the press known on Wednesday that they’re not worried about what the pay-per-view numbers are for Floyd Mayweather Jr’s next fight against Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) on September 12th. Ellerbe says that it’s the media’s job to worry about the PPV numbers.

Mayweather has taken a lot of flak for choosing the highly accomplished 31-year-old Berto for his next fight instead of someone that the media wanted him to fight. But Mayweather remarked that even if he had selected someone else, it still wouldn’t have made everyone happy. The media would still have taken a shot at him regardless.

“It doesn’t matter who the opponent is, [critics are] never happy,” Mayweather said. “They said [Manny] Pacquiao was a god. I fought [Miguel] Cotto, [Saul] ‘Canelo,’ [Alvarez] Diego Corrales when he was undefeated . . . all the best fighters of my era, I’ve fought and beat.”

It’s true. Mayweather is in a no-win situation no matter who he was to fight on September 12th. If Mayweather had selected Amir Khan, boxing fans would have quite rightly pointed out that Khan hasn’t faced a live body since his loss to Danny Garcia in 2012.

They would say that Khan almost lost his last fight to Chris Algieri, a fighter that Pacquiao easily beat last November by a one-sided 12 round decision. If Mayweather selected Keith Thurman, fans would have said that he’s never fought anyone good, and that he’s been fighting a lot of Khan’s leftover 2nd tier opponents like Luis Collazo and Julio Diaz. Mayweather was in a no-win situation no matter who he picked for his September 12th fight.

“We don’t worry about the [pay-per-view] numbers, that’s you guys’ jobs,” said Ellerbe to latimes.com. “I applaud Floyd to be the first to walk away from the sport undefeated, with all his faculties and nine figures in the bank at 38 years old. To accomplish that feat is truly remarkable.”

What people don’t realize is Mayweather is going to make his money against Berto regardless if the fight doesn’t bring in huge PPV numbers. I think it’s going to go well over 1 million buys, but even if it didn’t bring in a huge number of buys, Mayweather would still make big bank based on his guaranteed money with his Showtime/CBS contract.

We’re talking over $30 million. With that kind of money, Mayweather is going to do well even if the fight with Berto doesn’t bring in a huge number of buys. Again, I think it will. There’s a lot of new fans that Mayweather created from his recent fight against Manny Pacquiao that will be purchasing his fight against Berto, and that should help bring his buy totals over 1 million for the fight. Mayweather will get the benefit of all the interest that was created from the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, and that will ensure that his PPV numbers for the Berto fight will be huge. Pacquiao will get a nice bounce for his next fight even if he only winds up fighting one of his promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters.



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