Mayweather fight yields 1 million buys - crush UFC

[broncofan]

The return of welterweight Floyd Mayweather Jr., who easily outpointed Juan Manuel Marquez after 21 months in retirement last Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, generated an astonishing 1 million pay-per-view buys, HBO announced Friday.

Despite a fight many viewed as a mismatch between the bigger and faster Mayweather and the smaller and slower lightweight champion Marquez moving up in weight, the fight was a giant success on pay-per-view -- especially considering it went head-to-head with a UFC pay-per-view card. Many industry experts had expected a pay-per-view buy rate in the 600,000 to 700,000 range.

The fight generated $52 million in domestic pay-per-view revenue and is only the fifth time in boxing PPV history that a nonheavyweight event has reached seven figures.

Mayweather has participated in two of them. His May 2005 split decision victory against Oscar De La Hoya set the all-time record, generating 2.44 million buys.

"I am truly humbled by the numbers, and I appreciate all of the sports fans who either came to the fight or bought it on pay-per-view," Mayweather said in a statement. "It felt great to be back in the ring and next time I will be even better."

The million buys was derived from 525,000 from cable homes and 475,000 from satellite homes.

In the fight before announcing his retirement, Mayweather came close to the magic million number, generating 920,000 domestic buys for his welterweight championship defense against Ricky Hatton in December 2007. In his three other pay-per-view appearances, Mayweather had generated totals of 375,000 (Zab Judah), 365,000 (Arturo Gatti) and 325,000 (Carlos Baldomir).

"Sept. 19 was an event that connected with sports fans across the country," HBO PPV chief Mark Taffet said. "Floyd Mayweather has clearly reinforced his standing as a top attraction and fans are excited about his return to the sport."

Marquez had appeared twice previously in HBO PPV headline fights, generating 405,000 buys for his 2008 split-decision loss to Manny Pacquiao and 230,000 buys for his 2007 decision win against Marco Antonio Barrera.

HBO will replay Mayweather-Marquez on Saturday (10 p.m. ET) along with live coverage of the Vitali Klitschko-Cristobal Arreola heavyweight title bout from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the Nevada State Athletic Commission reported that the live gate for Mayweather-Marquez was $6,811,300, generated from 12,009 tickets sold.

http://www.espn.com

[broncofan]

So what was the PPV buys for UFC 103?

[NWOWolfpack]

http://blog.thesavagescience.com/2009/0 ... -estimates

We’ve spoken to several entertainment/media sources who are estimating UFC 103’s buyrate to be in the 400k to 600k range. While a solid number never gets released, the recent breakdown of UFC PPVs goes like this (again these are all estimates):

UFC 100: 1.7 million
UFC 101: 1.05 million
UFC 102: 535,000
UFC 103: 400,000-600,000

For a long time our position is that while its obvious that the UFC could cut the number of PPVs and put on better cards, we ‘get’ the logic behind the ‘more is better’ strategy. On balance, you’re better having two cards doing 700,00k each than you are one card doing 1.2 million. Based on the recent event numbers, I’m not sure that’s the case any more. The UFC has a dependable core audience of right around 500,000 PPV buyers. To bring in more buys, the event has to seem like a ‘big deal’ to the mainstream sports fans, casual MMA fans, and other groups outside of the core audience. That’s why Kimbo Slice is getting a gig in the UFC regardless of what happens on TUF–people, and particularly people outside of the UFC’s core audience, have demonstrated a willingness to pay to watch him fight.

It may have reached a point where the UFC would be better served having fewer PPV events and making them bigger deals with ’stacked’ cards. Revenues aside, getting 1 million PPV buys for one event as opposed to 500,000 for two events isn’t a wash–the publicity and ‘buzz’ upside from the bigger event is extremely valuable for the promotion and makes it easier to promote other events in the future.

[broncofan]

Sounds like a bunch of estimates

[snakerattle79]

The results trounced UFC 103, which was on pay-per- view the same night. Though the UFC does not release its pay-per-view figures, indications from industry sources are strong that the boxing card had a better than a 2-to-1 advantage.

Schaefer suggested UFC 103 barely topped 100,000 buys. He said the performance of Mayweather-Marquez clearly established Mayweather as the successor to Oscar De La Hoya as the industry’s pay-per-view king.

“To all the non-believers who have been saying that Floyd Mayweather is not a draw, hopefully, this will silence them,” Schaefer said. “Floyd Mayweather has proven with these numbers that he’s the No. 1 pay-per-view star in the business.

“I said all along my goal was to break 1 million homes and so many people said I was nuts and thought it was just hype or that I didn’t know what I was doing. Media members kept talking about boxing is dying, but we knew what we had and we stayed the course and in the end, we have been vindicated.”

UFC 103 was the company’s fourth pay-per-view in a 10-week stretch, beginning on July 11 with UFC 100. Mayweather-Marquez was the first major boxing event since Manny Pacquiao’s win over Ricky Hatton on May 2.

Still, few in boxing other than Schaefer were willing to predict such lofty numbers for the Mayweather-Marquez bout. However, it turned out to be one of the most successful pay-per-view events in the sport’s history.

White continuously boasted that his card would best the Mayweather card at the pay-per-view box office. He said UFC 103 did far more than 100,000 buys, but he conceded that boxing scored a heavy victory.

White said he thought before the fights, a home run for Mayweather-Marquez would have been 650,000. But he said Friday he had been hearing from his contacts that the fight may have reached as high as 1.6 million.

“I’m an emotional guy and if we’d only have done 100,000, or barely above 100,000, I would be suicidal,” White said. “Bottom line, we did a good number and we still got our asses kicked. What they did was phenomenal and I’m happy for them. This was our fourth pay-per-view in two months (actually 10 weeks) and we still did a great number, but this was only their second all year.

“We honestly thought we’d do our number and that if they knocked it out of the park, they’d do around 650,000. We are ecstatic with the number we did, but they did a huge, huge number.”

Mark Taffet of HBO Pay-Per-View said there have been more than 10 and fewer than 20 boxing matches in history that have reached or exceeded 1 million sales. Mayweather’s May 5, 2007, bout with De La Hoya in Las Vegas holds the record at 2.44 million.

Taffet said the fight drew well across all ethnic groups, through all demographics and across the country.

“Very clearly, Floyd Mayweather is a major attraction,” Taffet said. “The sport of boxing is in the midst of one of its great eras. There are a crop of welterweights who have the ability to deliver great matchup after great matchup and that will continue for as far as the eye can see.

“Boxing is Monday morning water cooler talk now and that’s what you strive for. There is a tremendous vitality in the sport and we’re reaching younger fans and newer fans and that is indicated by Floyd’s terrific performance.”

In his last fight prior to announcing his retirement, Mayweather sold 920,000 pay-per-views for a Dec. 7, 2007, match against Ricky Hatton.

He also fared better than Pacquiao against common opponents. Pacquiao’s fight with De La Hoya sold 1.2 million. His fight with Hatton did 850,000 and his rematch with Marquez sold 405,000, according to HBO Pay-Per-View figures.

Schaefer questioned the legitimacy of UFC pay-per-view results that were leaked. He said HBO is a publicly traded company that would face serious repercussions for releasing false numbers. The UFC, he noted, is a private company with no such concerns.

“I think the UFC and boxing should be able to co-exist and work together in this thing that we call (combat) sports,” Schaefer said.

“I don’t want to talk (expletive) about the UFC. But Dana White can’t do an interview without knocking boxing. If he thinks we’re idiots and don’t know anything about the pay-per-view business, I’ll make him a challenge.

“I am willing to hire one of the top three accounting firms, at my expense, and do an audit of his pay-per-view results. They are nowhere near what is put into the public. There is talk that UFC 100 did 1.6 million, but it barely broke a million. I am willing to pay to have the audits done to prove this.”

White said he would not allow anyone other than fighters with a contractual right to do so to audit his numbers.

“Do you think I’m (expletive) crazy?” he said.

But he said he thought that the success of the UFC has forced boxing promoters to be better. He called himself a huge boxing fan and said he is pleased if he can help make the sport he grew up following closely better.

He said the success of the two shows on the same night shows the interest in combat sports.

“I’m a true boxing fan and I’m happy for them, but what that number they pulled shows is the promise of combat sports,” White said.

“We’re kicking ass on pay-per-view. This was their second (major) pay- per-view. We do 13 a year, plus we put fights on free TV. Clearly, combat sports are more alive now than they’ve been in a long time.

“This shows that people are willing to stay at home on a Saturday night and watch a good fight. Do I think they delivered a good fight?

No. I think Mayweather is the best boxer in the world, and maybe one of the best of all-time, but that was a (expletive) fight. The thing we deliver is consistency, where once a show we give you that, ‘Holy (expletive),’ moment and you turn off the TV happy.”

Schaefer said he thought boxing promoters and the UFC shared common interests and could benefit from working together.

“I would love to sit down with Dana White and the Fertittas (who are the UFC’s primary owners), who I hear are very nice, first-class people, and see if there are ways we can work together to make the (combat) sports space, the fight space, even bigger,” Schaefer said.

In a statement released by his publicist, Mayweather said he was “humbled” by the card’s pay-per-view success. He also hinted at big fights in the future.

“I returned to boxing to fight the best, and that’s what I intend to do,” Mayweather said in a statement.