By Edward Chaykovsky

Abel Sanchez, best known at the moment as being the head trainer of middleweight king Gennady Golovkin, believes the disappointing pay-per-view figures for Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev was a direct result of the backlash from the 2015 mega-bout between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

Mayweather-Pacquiao brought in a record shattering 4.6 million buys and over $600 million in revenue. Fans were very upset with the lack of fireworks and the post-fight bombshell that Pacquiao entered the fight with a right shoulder injury. The PPV had the highest price tag to date, with 89.99 for a standard feed and 99.99 for HD.

Since Mayweather-Pacquiao, no boxing pay-per-view has been able to crack a million buys. The closest, was the 2015 clash between Miguel Cotto and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez - which did around 900,000.

Since Canelo-Cotto, no pay-per-view has even come close to reaching a million.

There were some high hopes for the light heavyweight showdown between Ward and Kovalev. The fight was anticipated for nearly a year. Both boxers had two HBO televised interim fights to further build the fight.After the smoke cleared, the pay-per-view performed below expectations with 160,000 buys.

Sanchez's fighter, Golovkin, will headline an HBO pay-per-view event on March 18, when he faces mandatory challenger Daniel Jacobs at New York's Madison Square Garden.

"It’s unfortunate because we had two guys in Ward and Kovalev who are actually pretty popular — Ward being a gold medalist and Kovalev having a good run at it up to that fight — but I think the fans are upset because of what Mayweather and Pacquiao did to us and they are hitting us back. We need to continue to put on the best fights possible and I think we will get them back, we’re going to have these low numbers and we’re going to have to live with them until the fans come back to the table and start paying again to watch the great fights that are being put on," Sanchez told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.