Mayweather
vs Ortiz: PPV Numbers Released, Second-Biggest
Non-Heavyweight Money Show Ever
Ethan
Miller - Getty Images
A
reported 1.25 million viewers bought the show that turned
into The Suckerpunch Heard 'Round the World. (Photo by
Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Despite rumors that the show had grossly
underperformed, RingTV.com reports that
the September 17 pay-per-view event featuring the
Mayweather vs Ortiz main event sold 1.25 million
pay-per-views, and generated $78,440,000 in pay-per-view
revenue, making it the second-biggest non-heavyweight
event ever in terms of the revenue generated by the
sales of the show.
The biggest, of course, is Mayweather's 2007 fight with
Oscar De La Hoya, which came in at an enormous
$136,853,700. Mayweather vs Ortiz bumps Mayweather vs
Mosley ($78,330,000) down to third place. All fights are,
indeed, higher than Pacquiao fights, but a couple of things
do need to be noted here:
- The HD PPV price for this show was $69.95, or $10-15 higher than normal. The non-HD price was $59.95. They overcharged. In the end I doubt they're too upset about it, so expect that to be the new going rate for Mayweather shows. In the end, they may have lost a few viewers (and that's questionable), but they made more money.
- This is the number released by Golden Boy/Mayweather. If we're all going to take Bob Arum's claim of 1.3 million for Pacquiao vs Mosley with a grain of salt, we should do the same here. This isn't about me doubting that this show did 1.25, or Pacquiao-Mosley did 1.3, it's just that I can't say I'm 100% sure no one's inflating a little bit.