Mayweather vs Berto (Photo : Reuters)
It would be interesting for boxing experts to monitor the gate receipts and pay-per-view buys for Manny Pacquiao's next fight in 2016. The numbers would indicate if he was responsible for the lack of interest in the sport of boxing fans as newly retired boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. claims.
For now, the numbers indicate boxing fans punished Mayweather for the lackluster match between him and Pacquiao on May 2. Yahoo Sports reports that Mayweather's last professional fight on Sept. 12 against Haitian boxer Andre Berto only had about 400,000 PPV buys, confirming speculations even before the bout that it would be a major flop.
ESPN calls it ending Mayweather's last fight not with a bang, but with a whimper, noting that his 49-0 record was established while sports fans yawned at the finale. The sports website has similar numbers cited by Yahoo Sports, adding that even if the bout sold 550,000 subscriptions, it was still a box-office bomb.
The numbers, though are unofficial because Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports, does not plan to release the numbers, knowing it would only confirm that their boxer is hated by the public for the May 2 bout.
He concedes that it was really difficult to top the May 2 "Fight of the Century" which sold 4.6 million PPVs and earned $400 million in PPV buys alone. Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe says live gate was $10 million with 13,359 spectators. In contrast, live gate for May 2 was $72 million.
"To a large extent, anything we did coming off that massive May 2 event was going to feel a like a bit of a letdown," Espinoza says. He admits, "We didn't have available a really compelling list of available opponents. There's been a lot of speculation about a lot of thing, but when you get down to it, there wasn't really a long list of available guys and none of them were slam dunk established stories or really compelling storylines."
Mayweather's income also significantly was lower than his May 2 bout which earned for him about $230 million. Last week, he earned a "measly" guaranteed purse of $32 million - which is still the envy of majority of boxers - while opponent Andre Berto of Haiti earned $4 million.
Espinoza describes Mayweather as "a victim of his own success," although disappointed boxing fans would surely disagree and says that success has gone to the head of Mayweather that's why he exited from boxing with few bothering to watch his last match because their hopes of seeing him lose ended on May 2 when he was booed despite winning over Pacquiao.
