By Dan Ambrose: The results from this months’ HBO pay-per-view fight between former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KO’s) and Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KO’s) are in and they’re not good. According to Dan Rafael, the Cotto-Martinez fight brought in just 350,000 PPV buys on HBO, well below the projected 475,000 buys that it was estimated to pull in.
The fight still made a profit, but it was a slim one and not the cash windfall that the promoters of the event Bob Arum and Lou Dibella thought it would be. Arum blames the poor PPV results on fan fatigue from having to purchase too many PPV events. Arum feels that the Cotto vs. Martinez fight was merely a good one, and not a great one designed for PPV. Dibella, for his part, blames the low PPV figures on fans having competing interests with horse racing event at the Belmont Stakes and Los Angeles Kings vs. New York Rangers Stanley Cup finals taking place.