By Mark Vester
An interesting point was noted in the latest article by Robert Morales of the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
If Oscar De La Hoya's May 5 pay-per-view battle with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. generates at least 965,000 buys, he will become the new king of pay-per-view.
Only Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield have generated more pay-per-view revenue than De La Hoya. De La Hoya's numerous pay-per-view fights have generated $492 million, while Tyson has generated $545 million and Holyfield created $543 million in revenue.
"This by far has to be the biggest," De La Hoya said during a media conference call. "It just feels and seems bigger than any other fight I've been involved in. With all the interviews I've been doing and photo shoots for various magazines. And people just wanting to go to the fight, like celebrities."
De La Hoya is also looking to break another record by generating more pay-per-view buys than any event in the history of television. No easy task.
The record is held by the Tyson-Holyfield rematch, which generated 1.9 million pay-per-view buys, and followed by 2002's Lennox Lewis vs. Tyson battle, coming close with 1.8 million buys.
De La Hoya's 1999 battle with Felix Trinidad ranks third, with 1.4 million buys. The 2004 bout with Bernard Hopkins did 1 million buys, and his 2006 battle with Ricardo Mayorga did around 935,000.
The bout with Mayweather stands a good chance of breaking the record for his bout with Trinidad, but cable industry insiders don't see the number of buys coming close to the 2 million mark.