By Mark Vester
The Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Ricky Hatton pay-per-view which took place in Las Vegas on December 8 has shattered UK pay-per-view buyrate numbers. According to The Telegraph , Sky Box Office estimates as many as 1.2 million buys and the number can increase to 1.4 million. The final number will not be known until January, but Sky says the final buyrate will be well over 1 million, cracking the 2002 record of 750,000 buys, set by Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson.
It marks the first time in pay-per-view boxing history, that an event will return more UK pay-per-view buys than in the US. Earlier this week, HBO announced a US buyrate of 850,000.
Since the announcement of the HBO buyrate numbers for Mayweather-Hatton, numerous Mixed Martial Arts outlets have attacked the number because Golden Boy Promotions predicted a buyrate of 1.5 million. Even though no MMA event has come close to 850,000 buys in 2007, some felt a need to make something out of nothing.
These MMA outlets were right because Golden Boy Promotions was wrong, the buyrate was not 1.5 million, the overall number (estimated and likely to rise) between the US and the UK are higher, at 2.05 million and probably will top off at 2.2 million buys between the two countries by the end of January.
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