By Raj Parmar: Top Rank chief Bob Arum has weighed in on what the possible pay per view buys may be for the rematch between pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather (47-0, 26 KO’s) and Marcos Maidana (35-5, 31 KO’s) that took place over the weekend. While most expected the pay per view figures to likely be around the 900,000 buys the first fight was said to have generated, Arum feels the fight did far worse.
“His [Floyd’s] PPV numbers have been going down considerably. For example his numbers from the Maidana fight were considerably less than the first fight and less than [Manny] Pacquiao did when he fought [Timothy] Bradley [rematch in April],” Arum stated as per scmp.com, “What that tells us is that people are getting disgusted with Mayweather and his base is eroding.”
The pay per view buys for the rematch between Arum’s star pupil Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KO’s) and Timothy Bradley (31-1, 12 KO’s) did approximately 750,000-800,000 buys. Therefore Arum is stating that the buys for Mayweather-Maidana 2 will be in and around the 700,000 range or lower. While there have been reports that the pay per view pre-ordering for the event was less than spectacular, nothing official has been released by Showtime as yet.
Despite the initial estimations on the number of buys Mayweather-Maidana 2 might have generated, it is clear that both Floyd and Manny have suffered reduced pay per view buys in the last couple of years as the general public frustratingly awaits the two to finally face off with each other. Back when interest was at its height for a Floyd-Manny showdown back in 2009-2011, both fighters were fighting for HBO which would have made it not very difficult to stage the event had each man agreed to take the fight.
Mayweather has since signed an exclusive contract to fight on Showtime pay per view while Manny remains devoted to HBO. This makes it a little harder to put the fight together due to the rival networks having to agree on how to split the enormous money the event would generate, but Arum feels the two networks are willing to work together to make the event happen and it’s now just up to the fighters to agree.
“Based on the willingness of both networks wanting to do a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight as I understand it from them, they have agreed on a format to do it. They have agreed at the highest level,” Arum stated, “We have spoken to Showtime [who represent Mayweather] and we have spoken with HBO [Pacquiao]. We have not spoken with anybody on Mayweather’s side. We understand from the Showtime people that they have talked to the Mayweather side.”
At the post fight press conference Showtime Sports VP Stephen Espinoza would not get into details if Showtime has spoken with HBO or anybody else from Manny’s camp, however he confirmed if talks had occurred the press would not be notified until a deal was in place. With both Showtime and HBO eager to capitalize on a blockbuster Mayweather-Pacquiao showdown before either man retires, it is very likely one if not both sides would be trying to influence the fight amidst declining pay per view figures across the board.
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