By Frank Livingstone: The biggest news in boxing for 2011 so far has got nothing to do on what happened or will happen inside the ring but rather outside it. Bob Arum of Top Rank has formally informed Ross Greenburg at a dinner that he is taking the Pacquiao franchise out of HBO to CBS/Showtime. This bombshell has taken the boxing world by surprise. Speculations began to surface that HBO has had enough of Top Rank’s choice of subpar opponents for its top stars including Pacquiao and HBO’s selection of the Martinez/Dzinziruk for its PPV ahead of the Cotto/Mayorga fight was an example.

This may be true but HBO has failed to realized that Bob still has the ace on his sleeve and the winning hand in Manny Pacquiao. It was reported that Top Rank has been talking with Showtime/CBS for sometime for a possible business deal. I’m sure that HBO knew about this rumour but it didn’t heed the warning signs in front of them.

CBS/Showtime will now have the Pacquiao/Mosley fight shown on its PPV. CBS has a market audience of about 115 million compared to HBO’s 28 million. The challenge is how to convert that 115 million to potential PPV sales. Capturing just one percent of the market translates to 1.15 million which was the PPV numbers for the Pacquiao/Margarito fight but this is just the US market. The PPV numbers overseas with CBS support can add even more as Pacquiao is well known overseas. The markets in the Middle East and Japan can be tapped into as their interest of hosting a Pacquiao fight gains momentum.

So in the coming months before the fight in May, the US audience will get to know more about the fight as some exposures would be shown on its top CBS shows. The fight may also get a spot at the upcoming Super Bowl.

The uninformed US audience might be the target of their marketing strategy. Hardcore or casual fans may know Manny Pacquiao as an eight time world champion first and some may also know him as a congressman and humanitarian. But to other sectors of society who don’t know him, they would want to know what the fuss is about and this is the tricky part. CBS might have the rags to riches story, the people’s champion, David/Goliath angle or blood test controversies on its script. But you can rest assured; the Pacquiao Showtime would be coming soon to your screen.