by David P. Greisman
So much of the talk about the upcoming fight between Canelo Alvarez and Floyd Mayweather has been about whether it will break the pay-per-view record set by Mayweather’s bout with Oscar De La Hoya in 2007.
But Mayweather says the mark can fall without hitting 2.5 million buys, that it’s about the revenue that comes in from pay-per-view purchases and not necessarily the number of homes ordering the broadcast.
“We still can break the record and we don’t have to do 2.5,” Mayweather said on a Sept. 4 media conference call.
He noted that the price of buying a pay-per-view has gone up. He’s right.
The cost of the Sept. 14 pay-per-view is $64.95 for standard definition, and in this flat-screen society, there also are many who will choose to shell out $74.95 for the high-definition feed. De La Hoya’s fight with Mayweather was $54.95 for standard definition.
“Most homes were just standard definition” in 2007, said Leonard Ellerbe of Mayweather Promotions. “Obviously now, when you look at the cable and satellite systems, about 80 percent of the homes are in high definition now.”
Alvarez vs. Mayweather is already slated to break box office records. Earlier this summer, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions told BoxingScene.com that the live gate would come out to at least $18,647,000, but then later said the gate would go fall around $19.5 million . Either of those figures would exceed the gate of $18,419,200 brought in by the 2007 fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather.
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow David on Twitter @fightingwords2 or send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
