What PPV's didn't do as well as they were projected to do due to May/Pac?

[Motorcity Cobra]

I keep hearing May/Pac killed the PPV market and that was the reason PPV's have been selling horribly. So let's take a look at the PPV's following May/Pac

Floyd/Berto: This fight did exactly what I'd expect it to do. No Mexican in the main event. The opponent not coming off a big win. Not much promotion for this fight.

GGG/Lemieux: I think the boxing public was surprised this fight sold so poorly. We read about boxing everyday and pay close attention to the sport. Because we're in the boxing bubble it's hard for us to see from the outside in. From the inside GGG was the hottest thing in the sport. But on the outside no one knew who he was. And Lemieux was an absolutely nobody. Slightly better competition with name recognition and I think it could've cracked 200-250k.

Cotto/Canelo: Two fighters that sold a decent amount of PPV's on their own. One fighter had been in with Mayweather. The other had been in with Mayweather and Pac. Mexico vs Puerto Rico. The fight was a success

Pac/Bradley III: It did exactly what it should've done. Surprised it didn't do less. Nobody wanted to see that trilogy. Pac said this was his last fight so some people bought it as a farewell fight

Canelo/Khan: I think this one did better than expected. Khan has never been on PPV. Khan has never had monster ratings on HBO/SHO/PBC. He's known in the UK but nobody is traveling for him like Hatton. This did better than Canelo's fight against Lara and Angulo (a fellow Mexican.)

Crawford/Postol: Do I even need to explain this one?

Canelo/Smith: Canelo back to his Lara/Angulo numbers fighting a no name. I think it shows Canelo is good for 300-400k no matter who he fights.

Vargas/Pac: No major cable network support and Top Rank did this on their own. Did what it was expected, maybe a little better actually

Ward/Kovalev: Fans said for months this should't be a PPV fight because neither guy is known enough. Even thought it was the best two fighters in the game they aren't big enough names for PPV. Hopkins is a bigger name than Ward and he fought Kovalev on HBO. The fight did what it should've done. Maybe a little less.


So. The only fights I can see doing worse than expected due to May/Pac was Floyd/Berto. I thought Floyd was good for 500k every time out. All the other fights did what they should've did maybe a lil worse but none of it was due to May/Pac.

[TheCell8]

While you are probably right about the other fights doing as well as they possibly could, the clearest evidence that MayPac destroyed the PPV market was the May/Berto fight.

That was the lowest PPV total Mayweather has ever had since he fought Arturo Gatti (In his PPV debut). While the opponent wasn't exactly a household name, the fight was in part promoted as Mayweather's 'farewell fight' plus it was coming off the heels of MayPac so you were expecting some residual. Maybe not 1M, but the fight could have gotten Maidana-like numbers of around 900K. But the fact that it got 550K, following a PPV that sold 4.6M, is an embarrassment and while experts predicted it would do poorly, no one predicted it would do THAT poorly.

It just goes to show you that people were fed up with MayPac and weren't going to pay for their PPVs anymore. Look at Pac's numbers before and after. How do his numbers decrease following the biggest PPV fight ever? You could say it's the opponents but he was fighting guys like Rios and Algieri and those fights did better than Vargas and a third Bradley fight.

[Motorcity Cobra]

While you are probably right about the other fights doing as well as they possibly could, the clearest evidence that MayPac destroyed the PPV market was the May/Berto fight.

That was the lowest PPV total Mayweather has ever had since he fought Arturo Gatti (In his PPV debut). While the opponent wasn't exactly a household name, the fight was in part promoted as Mayweather's 'farewell fight' plus it was coming off the heels of MayPac so you were expecting some residual. Maybe not 1M, but the fight could have gotten Maidana-like numbers of around 900K. But the fact that it got 550K, following a PPV that sold 4.6M, is an embarrassment and while experts predicted it would do poorly, no one predicted it would do THAT poorly.

It just goes to show you that people were fed up with MayPac and weren't going to pay for their PPVs anymore. Look at Pac's numbers before and after. How do his numbers decrease following the biggest PPV fight ever? You could say it's the opponents but he was fighting guys like Rios and Algieri and those fights did better than Vargas and a third Bradley fight.

The Berto fight was didn't follow the Mayweather PPV formula. Mexican fighter (Canelo, Guerrero, Marquez, Ortiz)
Fighter coming off a big win. (Ortiz, Maidana)
Established name (Cotto, Hatton, Mosely)

Berto didn't fit any of those. That fight was the cash grab. He was still guaranteed that 32 mil so he took that fight and didn't care how much the PPV sold. I remember they announced the fight late as hell and didn't do much promotion. I think if Floyd had picked a fighter that followed the formula it would've did a lot better.

Manny picking Bradley for the third time. Nobody wanted to see that. But it still did around the numbers Manny was doing with Algieri and Rios so it really didn't flop.

[Scipio2009]

While you are probably right about the other fights doing as well as they possibly could, the clearest evidence that MayPac destroyed the PPV market was the May/Berto fight.

That was the lowest PPV total Mayweather has ever had since he fought Arturo Gatti (In his PPV debut). While the opponent wasn't exactly a household name, the fight was in part promoted as Mayweather's 'farewell fight' plus it was coming off the heels of MayPac so you were expecting some residual. Maybe not 1M, but the fight could have gotten Maidana-like numbers of around 900K. But the fact that it got 550K, following a PPV that sold 4.6M, is an embarrassment and while experts predicted it would do poorly, no one predicted it would do THAT poorly.

It just goes to show you that people were fed up with MayPac and weren't going to pay for their PPVs anymore. Look at Pac's numbers before and after. How do his numbers decrease following the biggest PPV fight ever? You could say it's the opponents but he was fighting guys like Rios and Algieri and those fights did better than Vargas and a third Bradley fight.

No one gave Berto any kind of chance at making the fight remotely competitive; to try and parallel that to the Maidana fight, where Marcos was coming in raging hot off of the biggest win of his life, makes you look silly

[Tomjas]

I think that you have to look at who the current "stars" of the sport are

Canelo - no cross-over appeal and best known to casuals for ducking GGG

GGG - some cross-over appeal but no huge nationalistic fanbase to underpin PPV numbers

Pac - old, lost to Floyd in a stinker and has made a douche of himself with comments

Ward - doesnt play the heel and is "promoted" by a bunch of idiots

Loma - small

Gonzalez - small

Literally the only guy that I can see becoming a megastar is Joshua

[Eff Pandas]

Solid post and I agree that no fight really underperformed expectations by reasonable pundits and fans. The ppv are dead people have never had a great argument as much as I'd love for ppv to be dead.

[Johnwoo8686]

I don't think May Pac killed the PPV market at all especially since the UFC is enjoying record high pay per views. There is definitely a market out there. Sadly boxing doesn't have any big names right now the way the UFC does. Boxing is in need of another star. Canelo could have been that guy but the Floyd loss killed his aura of invincibility and he doesn't speak English so it is hard for him to crossover to an English speaking market.

[Motorcity Cobra]

I think that you have to look at who the current "stars" of the sport are

Canelo - no cross-over appeal and best known to casuals for ducking GGG

GGG - some cross-over appeal but no huge nationalistic fanbase to underpin PPV numbers

Pac - old, lost to Floyd in a stinker and has made a douche of himself with comments

Ward - doesnt play the heel and is "promoted" by a bunch of idiots

Loma - small

Gonzalez - small

Literally the only guy that I can see becoming a megastar is Joshua

I don't think May Pac killed the PPV market at all especially since the UFC is enjoying record high pay per views. There is definitely a market out there. Sadly boxing doesn't have any big names right now the way the UFC does. Boxing is in need of another star. Canelo could have been that guy but the Floyd loss killed his aura of invincibility and he doesn't speak English so it is hard for him to crossover to an English speaking market.

Solid post and I agree that no fight really underperformed expectations by reasonable pundits and fans. The ppv are dead people have never had a great argument as much as I'd love for ppv to be dead.

What about WWE? They've been doing PPV just as long as boxing. What are their numbers like? Have they seen a huge dropoff? What's the average buy of one of theirs and how much do they usually cost?

[Tomjas]

What about WWE? They've been doing PPV just as long as boxing. What are their numbers like? Have they seen a huge dropoff? What's the average buy of one of theirs and how much do they usually cost?

http://indeedwrestling.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/wwe-2006-2013-ppv-numbers-and-lengthy.html

Very different model as stars are on annual contract and I dont think that they generally participate in PPV revenue

What's more, guys that are employed for a one-off bout in a PPV generally appear on other non-PPV shows to hype up subsequent appearances so ratings spike for those as well

[-PBP-]

The ppv market tanked because you have unestablished fighters trying to build their legacy on ppv instead of putting in work, building your legacy and fighting in ppv once your a proven and established product.