Stunning pay-per-view numbers match Manny Pacquiao and Mike Tyson
Superstar boxer turned global icon Manny Pacquiao has matched pay-per-view records set by “Iron” Mike Tyson.
Tyson, who previously held the record for most pay-per-view buys in three years, is set to be dwarfed by Pacquiao, who recently won over at least 1.15 million buys for his fight against Antonio Margarito.
That comes out to over $64-million domestic pay-per-view revenue.
“This is the third consecutive year that a Manny Pacquiao mega-fight has exceeded 1 million buys and he has generated 5.1 million buys over his last five fights — true measures of his PPV superstar status," acknowledged HBO senior vice president Mark Taffet
in an ESPN article.
Buying numbers for Pacquiao-Margarito are expected to increase as buys continue to be accounted for. It is projected that final figures will register upwards of 1.4 million buys.
Dan Rafael of ESPN was first to indicate that Pacquiao, 31, had matched Tyson’s three year pay-per-view feat.
A 2008 fight between Pacquiao and Oscar De la Hoya, that sky-rocketed the former to fame, generated 1.25 million pay-per-view buys, with 1.2 million coming from a later fight with current WBA junior welterweight king Miguel Cotto.
Recent numbers of Pacquiao-Margarito indicate a job well done to advertise the bout by HBO.
The fight was dramatized on their weekly boxing reality TV show, 24/7, which documented problems and hopes in both fighting camps and brought respective stories home before the fight date of November 13.
Numbers also indicate a growing resurgence in boxing, a sport which has seen a slump in recent years due to the increasing popularity of MMA among other sports.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who organized the fight, was appropriately pleased with figures, saying: “I think the fight with Margarito did very, very well and we are constantly trying to figure out how to better our performances.”
"Considering where we were when we announced the fight, nobody would have believed we would have done this,” he continued. “They said Margarito was disgraced and people talked about boycotting it.”
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