By Mark Vester

According to the guys at HBO, last Saturday's Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto pay-per-view generated 1.25 million buys; beating out the buyrate of September's Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez pay-per-view, which generated a million buys. Mayweather's team had anticipated that Pacquiao-Cotto would do a higher number. Mayweather stated on Monday that Pacquiao would like do a higher number because he had a "dance partner" in Cotto. Mayweather doesn't think Marquez brought anything to the table in terms of pay-per-view buys.

HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg stated that Pacquiao-Cotto grossed $70 million. The buyrate number breaks down to 650,000 buys from cable, 600,000 from satellite and 110,000 buys from Puerto Rico.

The two pay-per-view buyrates are good sign that boxing is starting to come back in a big way. It was the first time in a decade that two boxing pay-per-views generated a million buys in the same year. Top Rank and Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions [acting for Mayweather] are in talks to make a Mayweather-Pacquiao clash for next year.

Semd News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingvester@gmail.com