By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach sees the fifth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez as breaking the six-year pay per view mark for the highest PPV buys ever in boxing in a 2007 fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. That fight drew an incredible 2.4 million buys.
However, it had two huge PPV stars facing each other, so it was a lot easier for that fight to do huge numbers compared to the fifth fight between Manny and Marquez.
Roach said to fighthub.tv.com “I think this will be the biggest seller ever in boxing.”
I don’t agree with that. Marquez isn’t a huge pay per view star in the U.S. He’s got a following but he’s never been proven to bring in huge numbers on his own, and Pacquiao has now lost his last two fights. I think boxing fans are kind of selective about who they’re willing to pay their hard earned money to see.
Once a fighter starts losing over and over again, it’s difficult to ask the boxing public to still pay to see them fight. Look at the reality here. Pacquiao has lost his last two fights, no longer holds a world title, and is coming off of a brutal knockout loss in his last fight. How do you ask the boxing public to pay $60 to see that guy fight?
There’s also the attrition factor. The Pacquiao-Marquez fight has already taken place four times now, and four times Marquez has proven that he’s better than Pacquiao. Where’s the suspense? We already know Marquez will dominate Pacquiao and will likely knock him out, so why should boxing fans want to see the fight again?
I do think a lot of fans will still pay to see a fifth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez but I don’t think it’s going to come even close to breaking the 2.4 million buys the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight hauled in. The Marquez vs. Pacquiao 4 fight brought in only 1.15 million buys, so how is that they’re going to get an additional 1 million fans to want to see them fight for a fifth time? I don’t see it.
The market has already spoken about how much they value the Pacquiao-Marquez fights, and they’re saying that it’s worth a little over 1 million buys. The reason for that is pretty simple. It’s not a high demand fight like Mayweather vs. Pacquiao once was, and it’s already redundant now after four fights. Marquez has proven that he’s the better fighter and there’s nothing else to prove. They need to move on.
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