By Rick Reeno
Based upon the ongoing chatter among industry insiders, the final buyrate number for the Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley pay-per-view is going to fall in the realm of 1.1 to 1.2 million buys. When Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole dropped those figures several days ago, most believed the figures were "too low." BoxingScene.com spoke with several industry figures in the last two days and almost all of them have said "Iole's figures are pretty accurate."
One source told BoxingScene that he spoke to someone close to HBO, someone with "knowledge of the buy numbers," and that individual did dispute Iole's figures. I've heard Golden Boy Promotions told a few people that several cable outlets have not turned in their buy figures. An HBO Sports employee was overheard talking in California about the buy numbers, and he said the network believes the final tally will land around 1.4 million.
The number of 1.2 million, no matter how you look at it, is very good. The expectations of Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer and Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe were very high. Both of them expected record-breaking figures. Schaefer made a few buyrate predictions of 3 million and 4 million, but I don't know how serious he was with those statements.
One thing is for sure, if Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao resume their negotiations for a the biggest fight in boxing, a 50-50 split is the right way to go. I know Mayweather has made a few comments about deserving a higher split of the money based on his ability to generate higher pay-per-view figures, but Pacquiao showed that he can sell just as many pay-per-views against a very good B-side opponent, as he generated with his 1.25 million buys for last November's fight against Miguel Cotto.
