The potential pay-per-view revenue from the Manny Pacquiao versus Floyd Mayweather welterweight showdown is so stratospheric that with just three days to go before the fight, an actual figure was impossible to predict.
This comes as Pacquiao?s trainer, Freddie Roach, said he wasn?t sure Mayweather?s heart was in his long-awaited showdown with the Filipino fighter.
Stephen Espinoza, vice-president and general manager of Showtime Sports, said interest in the bout was unprecedented ? to a degree that the usual markers for predicting the number of purchases and revenue did not apply.
?Usually we get day-by-day updates of where the cable operators are in terms of their buys,? Espinoza said. ?I can compare Wednesday to prior Wednesdays in prior pay-per-views.
?In general, that?s fairly accurate. On this particular week, we?re seeing numbers that have no precedent, so encouraging and so massive that you really can?t extrapolate anything from them.?
The fight, which has been more than five years in the making between the top pound-for-pound fighters of their generation, will shatter the records for pay-per-view purchases.
It?s just a question of how much more the fight will garner than the record 2.48 million pay-per-view purchases for Mayweather?s 2007 fight with Oscar De La Hoya and the record pay-per-view revenue of $US150 million ($188m) set by Mayweather v Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez in 2013.
Anticipated live gate receipts of some $US70m dwarf the previous record for a Nevada fight, the $US20m figure for Mayweather-Alvarez.
Regardless of the outcome, each fighter could make more than $US100m, with Mayweather saying this week he expects to pocket $US200m.
Meanwhile, Roach said he doubted Mayweather?s passion for the fight.
?I wonder if he?s going to show up,? Pacquiao?s trainer said of Mayweather, who brings an unblemished 47-0 record to the bout.
Even though the fight has sparked a frenzy of anticipation worldwide, Roach said Mayweather?s uncharacteristically subdued demeanour in the build-up was puzzling.
?At the press conference in Los Angeles, I said we were going to kick his ass and I didn?t get a response,? Roach recalled of his efforts to provoke Mayweather at the March launch of the bout.
?I don?t think any fighter is afraid,? Roach added. ?I think he was forced into this fight. I don?t think he wants to fight this fight. He didn?t get to pick his opponent.?
Roach was speaking to a huddle of reporters before to the last official media conference before Sunday?s bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. It was only the second public meeting between the boxers considered the best pound-for-pound of their generation.
Mayweather, 38, acknowledged that the money mattered more than closing in on Rocky Marciano?s 49-0 ring record.
It?s up to Roach to mastermind 36-year-old Pacquiao?s bid for a victory that the fighter hopes will inspire his countrymen.
?I think we have more speed, more power and I think we?re 100 per cent ready for what he brings to the table.?
Roach isn?t concerned by Mayweather?s record or reputation as a consummate defensive fighter.
?I?m not really impressed with people that are undefeated,? he said. ?I think losses make you a better person and a better fighter. You learn much more from a loss than you do from a win.?
