By Ryan Dunn: I thought it would be an interesting challenge to figure out who is more popular between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Was there someone with a magic formula to answer the question once and for all? I wasn’t concerned with who was the better boxer, since that cannot be definitively proven. But could I determine something as elusive as popularity? I wondered.
But where to begin? The PPV numbers? Please, those digits are spun more than a six year old on a tilt-a-whirl. Information from the promoters? Honestly, that might, in fact, be an oxymoron. Awards, belts and trophies? Many will argue their merits based on biased judges. What about a fighter’s record? Too hard to quantify the complex dynamics of the fighter’s pedigree, which fighters were peaking when they fought them, etc.
It seemed an impossible feat. But then it hit me…
YouTube!!
Next to Google, YouTube is one of the most popular websites on the planet. From there, I investigated both Floyd and Manny’s views on Youtube. I found the ten most popular videos from each (based on the criteria below).
For good measure, I did the same with each of their most recent opponents (For Floyd I investigated Mosley, for Pacquiao I looked into Clottey). I was hoping that doing this would shed some light on how they performed at the PPV box office a little better (my findings, as you will see, were creepily accurate).
I set some logical criteria, as follows:
First, I only counted the most viewed clips relating to the actual fighters (ie. not some pretty girl fantasizing about Mayweather, or some hater predicting a Pacquiao fight). Next, I omitted videos which involved another fighter from the list (example, I didn’t count a Pacquiao vs. Clottey highlight, since they cancel each other out). Finally, I kept the subject matter strictly related to boxing (no Wrestlemania, no karaoke, no music videos).
And without further ado, here are the results, the numbers given in millions (rounded up or down to the nearest 100,000).
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
3.5 – “Oscar de la Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather”
2.1 – “Roy Jones vs. Floyd Mayweather”
2.1 – “Floyd Mayweather jr.”
2.0 – “floyd mayweather highlight”
1.6 – “Zab Judah Vs Floyd Mayweather”
1.5 – “50 Cent At Floyd Mayweather’s Big Boy Mansion”
1.3 – “Floyd Mayweather Vs Ricky Hatton Final Round TKO”
1.1 – “50 Cent & Floyd Mayweather – On The Way To The Ring”
1.0 – “Sugar Ray Leonard vs Floyd Mayweather”
1.0 – “Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Ricky Hatton”
TOTAL: 17.2M Views
Manny Pacquiao
2.2 – “HBO Boxing: Marquez vs. Pacquiao II”
2.2 – “Greatest Fights of Manny Pacquiao”
2.0 – “HBO Boxing: Marquez vs Pacquiao II Highlights”
1.9 – “Manny Pacquiao”
1.7 – “HBO Boxing: Pacquiao vs. Cotto – Fight Preview”
1.6 – “Manny Pacquiao Greatest KO!!!”
1.6 – “PACQUIAO vs COTTO – FIREPOWER HD”
1.6 – Manny Pacquiao vs Ricky Hatton Countdown!!!”
1.6 – “Pacquiao Vs. Morales III”
1.4 – “Manny Pacquiao Stopped Ricky Hatton in the 2nd round”
TOTAL: 17.8M Views
…
Shane Mosley
0.9 – “Shane Mosley Vs Antonio Margarito”
0.8 – “Mosley Vs. Cotto Highlights”
0.5 – “Miguel Cotto vs Shane Mosley RD 11-12”
0.4 – “shane mosley knockout”
0.4 – “Shane Mosley: Greatest Hits”
0.3 – “Cotto vs Mosley Round 10”
0.3 – “Mosley vs Mayorga Highlights (HBO)”
0.3 – “Mosley vs Mayorga – Last Round”
0.2 – “Miguel Cotto vs Shane Mosley RD 1-2”
0.2 – “MARGARITO’S ILEGAL HANDWRAP VIDEO”
TOTAL: 4.3M Views
Joshua Clottey
0.8 – “Miguel Cotto vs Joshua Clottey Highlights (HBO)”
0.6 – “Antonio Margarito vs Joshua Clottey R1-2”
0.3 – “Margarito vs Clottey”
0.1 – “Zab Judah vs Joshua Clottey”
0.1 – “Joshua Clottey Highlight”
0.1 – “margarito vs clottey”
0.1 – “Cotto vs Clottey Round 12”
0.1 – “Joshua Clottey Vs Diego Corrales Part 2”
0.1 – “Joshua Clottey Vs Diego Corrales Part 5”
0.1 – “Joshua Clottey Vs Diego Corrales Part 3”
TOTAL: 2.4M Views
Based on my research, Pacquiao is 4% more YouTube Popular™ than Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The second thing that should jump out at you, however, is that while Pacquiao has a higher 10-video total, Mayweather has the single highest viewed video on the list (this echoes his performance with ODLH, compared with Pacquiao’s sustained and growing popularity).
The third thing you’ll notice is the view spread between Clottey and Mosley, and how that relates to the PPV events this year. Mosley has a 45% higher view count than Clottey. Now here’s the scary part… Mosley did 47% higher PPV numbers than Clottey (750,000 to Mosley’s 1.4M).
In the words of Neo: “Whoa!”
As a back up, I Google’d “Floyd Mayweather” and got 3.54M results. Then I Google’d “Manny Pacquiao” and got 3.97M results (Pacquiao, thus, is 14% more Google Popular™). The gap is actually a little higher, since the “Floyd Mayweather” query will catch posts about Floyd’s father, but I figured it would be minimal (and adding the “Jr.” would omit hundreds of thousands of pages).
At the end of the day, I think I may have found a winning formula for determining popularity. After all, the numbers don’t lie, and neither does internet tracking. So until someone else comes along with a better method, this is your resident statistician, signing off from NYC.
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