A recent online survey conducted by a widely-circulated sports publication shows that over 60 percent of more than 2,000 respondents polled will still buy a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch despite public backlash on the quality of the first fight.
Bleacher Report asked over 2,000 respondents on its online poll this question: Would you buy a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch? More than 60 percent of the respondents said they would still buy the rematch. Mayweather and Pacquiao fought on May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Mayweather winning by a unanimous decision. Pacquiao claimed that he lost the fight to Mayweather because of his recurring shoulder injury. Pacquiao was reported to have re-injured his right shoulder almost midway to the fight which prevented him from pursuing Mayweather with two good hands. Pacquiao was apologetic for failing to show his fans the fight that they all wanted to see after more than five years of waiting. But the fans as well as the public in general complained that they were not informed of his injury which could have cautioned them into buying the fight on pay-per-view.at $100 each. Mayweather on the other hand claimed that he won fair and square and that Pacquiao was only making excuses for his loss. But the pound-for-pound king was also criticized heavily for his lackluster performance by not engaging Pacquiao in a toe-to-toe situation, opting to do his usual hit and run strategy to win on points. Despite the lackluster performance by both fighters, the fight broke all pay-per-view (PPV) records in the history of boxing with the fight garnering more than four million PPV buys valued at over $500 million including gate and other advertising revenues. Meanwhile, Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said he believes Mayweather will continue fighting despite his earlier pronouncement that his fight against Adre Berto would be his last. ?I don?t know where Mayweather?s going right now. I don?t think he?ll stop at 49 fights, I think he?ll fight to 50. I?m hoping that he promotes himself, maybe if he does he can make more money,? he said. The proposed rematch is going to be driven by buyers’ demand and as shown inn the B/R survey, the public is now willing to buy the rematch if it does happen next year.
