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Scott Heritage
Pittsburgh Fight Sports Examiner
January 31st, 2011
Manny Pacquiao's May 7th WBO welterweight title defense against Shane Mosley was met with few positive reactions from large sections of the press when it was first announced.
Many said that Mosley was over the hill after a one sided loss to Floyd Mayweather and lackluster draw against Sergio Mora. Others criticized Pacquiao himself for not insisting on taking on young undefeated champion Andre Berto or once more facing off against long time rival Juan Manuel Marquez.
Despite it all though, the fight is shaping up to be a great success, and with over 16000 tickets sold in three hours yesterday, Mosley and Pacquiao look set to do big pay per view numbers as well.
Top Rank boss Bob Arum said of the success:
“I have never promoted a fight that has sold so many tickets so quickly. Manny Pacquiao never ceases to amaze the world with his achievements. The excitement he generated today with the initial ticket sales makes it feel like fight week already!”
As amazed as Arum sounds though, it was almost certainly his own marketing strategies that were the cause.
Against Joshua Clottey, the fact that the fight was being held in the billion dollar Cowboys stadium helped to gloss over the fact that Pacquiao was an overwhelming favorite against an opponent few outside of boxing circles had even heard of. As a result of that, along with Pacquiao's continually rising star in the United States, the fight sold a respectable 700k pay per views, and the live gate was a staggering $6.3 million dollars.
Next Pacquiao was pitted against Antonio Margarito, who at the time was returning from the loaded hand wrap scandal and who had looked terrible in his last major fight against Shane Mosley. This time around the sheer size difference between the pair served as the draw, as well as the fact that Pacquiao was vying for his 8th title in an 8th weight class, an until then unheard of feat.
Fast forward to the present day and Pacquiao's next fight against Shane Mosley, and Bob Arum has done it once again.
Despite the fact that Mosley will be 40 years of age by the time the fight rolls around, and that his last two performances fell short of expectations, Arum has once again successfully given the fight a different selling point that takes focus away from Pacquiao's opponent.
The announcement days ago that the fight was being moved from the industry standard of HBO to Showtime with the build up series to be televised on CBS, attracted huge interest from fans and media alike, and even sparked talk of a possible return to network television for the sport.
Coinciding with this is the fact that Mosley was last seen by most casual American fans against Floyd Mayweather, where in the early rounds he nearly succeeded in shocking the boxing world, landing a big right hand that buckled the legs of the still undefeated former pound for pound king.
Unveiling Pacquiao and Mosley to a potentially much wider audience on CBS could also serve to both attract new fans to the sport and recapture many of the older fans who lost touch as the majority of major fights gradually moved over to HBO in the nineties.
Jim Wickman, Pitt: "If Manny goes on lots of CBS shows as a guest and they advertise the fight will sell huge"