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Pacquiao: Road to PPV Superstardom By Dr. Allan Recto PhilBoxing.com Sun, 18 Jan 2009  Laredo, Texas (Jan. 16, 2009) - The millions of Filipinos who watched and supported Manny Pacquiao during the Dream Match owe a debt of gratitude to one man, Oscar De La Hoya, who gave Pacquiao the chance to gain full PPV superstardom status. At the center of the squared jungle after the fight, De La Hoya praised Pacquiao by telling him, ?You are the best fighter in the world right now?keep it up,? to which the PacMan countered, ?No matter what happens, you?re still my idol.? De La Hoya acknowledged him by saying, ?Now, you?re my idol!? Freddie Roach once remarked that De La Hoya could no longer pull the trigger and in that historic boxing event, Oscar De La Hoya disclosed, ?You?re right Freddie?I don?t have it anymore.? As Team De La Hoya was exiting the ring to their dressing room, I made it known to them that the fight was nothing personal. ?Great fight guys?no hard feelings,? I managed to express to them. And Eric Gomez, Oscar?s childhood friend, looked toward me and uttered, ?Oh no?this is a sport!? Everyone knows Oscar De La Hoya has a proven track record in terms of Pay-Per-View (PPV) sales. He was badly beaten in a one-sided fight to a ?No Mas? submission by Pacquiao after Rd 8 last Dec. 6th in front of a jam-packed crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, while a greater audience worldwide watched. In March 2008, Pacquiao vs. Marquez PPV numbers were 400,000 and versus David Diaz in June of the same year were a dismal 250,000. Compared to the bout of Pacquiao against PPV box office king De La Hoya, the ?Dream Match? became a record breaking 1.25 million PPV buys for the year that earned a total of $ 70 million. There were only two other nonheavyweight bouts that broke the above record, the De La Hoya-Trinidad bout in 1999 which had 1.4 million PPV buys earning $ 71 million and the all time top-grosser De La Hoya vs. Mayweather bout at 2.4 million PPV buys that generated the sum of a massive $ 134 million. In December 2007, Ricky ?the Hitman? Hatton vs. Floyd ?Pretty Boy? Mayweather generated 850,000 PPV buys. However, in November 2008, the Ricky Hatton vs. Paulie Malignaggi bout was established to be a mere 200,000 buys. Team Hatton and Team Pacquiao owe it to the boxing community to get the deal done for a May 2 showdown. It will not be a mismatch but a highly anticipated great fight. It has the makings of a ?grudge match? literally and figuratively speaking. Both fighters? styles are tailor-made for each other and it could even end up in a phone-booth type of match. Pacquiao will surely be picked as the betting favorite over Hatton. Top photo: Manny Pacquiao while in training in L.A. for the Dream Match in Dec. ?08. (Photo by Reiver Rodriguez). 
Hatton (rightmost) with a hat on is seen standing behind Shane Mosley with De La Hoya-Pacquiao facing each other during the Weigh-In last Dec. ?08. (Photo by Reiver Rodriguez) However, with respect to PPV buys sharing, I firmly believe that Pacquiao is the bigger draw and should be entitled to get the bigger share. Simply, in the matter of figures, the three fights of Pacquiao in 2008 did so much better than the last 3 PPV outings of Ricky Hatton. Also, Pacquiao has been pound per pound best fighter in the world for the past two years whereas Hatton was never been considered among the list of the top 5 contenders. There were even those who thought Hatton would consider hanging up his gloves after the 10 Rd TKO loss to Mayweather. Given the present circumstances, Hatton should counter-offer a 55-45 split all around which might be acceptable to Pacquiao who is asking for a 60-40 deal in his favor. He may be lucky enough to get a chance to fight the current best pound per pound boxer or one of the great legends in the sport of boxing. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Dr. Allan Recto.  |
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