ARUM SAYS PACQUIAO-VARGAS DID AROUND 300,000 PPV BUYS

[Ruthless-RKO]

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum estimates that Manny Pacquiao’s title-winning effort against Jessie Vargas on Nov. 5 generated around 300,000 pay-per-view buys, he told RingTV.com on Tuesday.

“They’re still coming in,” Arum said of numbers from the Top Rank-produced broadcast. “It’s harder to get without HBO. But about where the Bradley numbers are, around the same. A little over 300 (thousand). The numbers are what the numbers are.”

Arum bypassed HBO for Pacquiao-Vargas, deciding instead to do it alone and have the production arm of Top Rank handle the PPV broadcast. Pacquiao’s April win against Timothy Bradley, which HBO handled on PPV, is said to have generated between 400,000 to 500,000 buys. Both are a far cry from the more than 4.4 million buys that Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. produced when they fought last year. Still, Arum was upbeat about the Nov. 5 numbers, framing it as a commercial success in the climate it was in.

“I think it’s a good number,” he said in a phone interview. “We’re pleased with it in the way we set it up. Everybody made a payday. You can’t expect in this environment to hit a home run every time. We’re up against the election, which meant that DirectTV and Dish and the cable systems are running election ads. But again, as long as you get a single or a double — fighters are happy with that.”

Arum said he was encouraged enough to put on more PPVs, again using Top Rank’s production team instead of HBO’s. And he may keep the same announcing team of Brian Kenny, Stephen A. Smith and Timothy Bradley intact. “We might,” Arum said. “We’d have to evaluate that. Certainly I love Stephen A. Smith and Bradley is terrific.”

[Enlightened-One]

I'm no expert on these things, since I'm not American, but I can only imagine it's pretty tough to gain a substantial PPV buy-rate without the involvement of either the HBO or the Showtime cable network giants.

I suspect that Top Rank made a small profit from the staging of the event, considering the total combined guaranteed paydays of the fighters competing in the main event was only $6.8m.

[BAD INTENTIONS]

Mosley had one good moment, and then got emasculated by Floyd. (5/2010)
Followed that up with a career ending stinker against Sergio Mora. (9/2010)
But still managed to sell 1.3M PPVs with Manny. (5/2011)

The only way Manny could have retained his PPV status was with an immediate rematch win against Marquez.
In the US, Manny became a "popular to follow" celebrity.
That market don't know shit about boxing and don't care to know shit about boxing.
As soon as Manny was no longer unbeatable, he was yesterday's news.

Add in the fact he keeps talking about rules from a guy who is only second to Frieza in genocide.

[Impractical Poster]

Figures. I had "zero" interest in seeing this fight.

[Lackeos]

300k for a Top Rank-hosted ppv is probably equivalent to 400 or 450k on an HBO ppv, in terms of real public interest and money netted for Top Rank. HBO adds more visibility to the promotion and takes a piece of the pie.

These figures aren't astoundingly shocking, considering that Vargas is totally sh*t and presents 0 intrigue. I'm as certain about Pacquiao's ability to beat Vargas as I would be if the opponent was Rios, Alvarado, Algieri, Malignaggi, Berto, or Victor Ortiz. To break 500k right now, Pacquiao would at least have to fight someone world class like Bradley, Thurman, Garcia, Crawford, Porter, Brook, or Spence; or someone marketable like Khan.

[Badhusker]

Arum is a proven liar, over and over, so believe what you want.

[Ruthless-RKO]

300k for a Top Rank-hosted ppv is probably equivalent to 400 or 450k on an HBO ppv, in terms of real public interest and money netted for Top Rank. HBO adds more visibility to the promotion and takes a piece of the pie.

These figures aren't astoundingly shocking, considering that Vargas is totally sh*t and presents 0 intrigue. I'm as certain about Pacquiao's ability to beat Vargas as I would be if the opponent was Rios, Alvarado, Algieri, Malignaggi, Berto, or Victor Ortiz. To break 500k right now, Pacquiao would at least have to fight someone world class like Bradley, Thurman, Garcia, Crawford, Porter, Brook, or Spence; or someone marketable like Khan.

I agree with all your post but a 4th fight vs. Bradley would do less than 300k fact!

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Good number, I didn't expect that much.

[Lackeos]

300k for a Top Rank-hosted ppv is probably equivalent to 400 or 450k on an HBO ppv, in terms of real public interest and money netted for Top Rank. HBO adds more visibility to the promotion and takes a piece of the pie.

These figures aren't astoundingly shocking, considering that Vargas is totally sh*t and presents 0 intrigue. I'm as certain about Pacquiao's ability to beat Vargas as I would be if the opponent was Rios, Alvarado, Algieri, Malignaggi, Berto, or Victor Ortiz. To break 500k right now, Pacquiao would at least have to fight someone world class like Bradley, Thurman, Garcia, Crawford, Porter, Brook, or Spence; or someone marketable like Khan.

I agree with all your post but a 4th fight vs. Bradley would do less than 300k fact!

I was just using Bradley as an example of a world class fighter. But he's definitely the absolute last world class fighter that you'd want to match Pacquiao with at this point.

[caldo2025]

I enjoyed the fight and I REALLY enjoyed the job that Top Rank did on fight night. The new look and new faces announcing and interviewing were great i thought. The promotion was really well done and i'd like to see more of those so i hope that this takes off a bit. Top Rank's show was much better than the product that PBC put together and the crews that they keep swapping in and out of these fights. Loved it.