With a three city press tour wrapping up this week, the buzz for Shane Mosley’s (46-5, 39 KO’s) welterweight title defense against Floyd Mayweather (40-0, 25 KO’s) is just starting to shape up.
http://www.examiner.com/x-34564-New-England-Boxing-Examiner~y2010m3d3-Mayweather–Mosley-247-worthy – Excitement for Mayweather Mosley 24/7 on HBO Begins.
Some interesting comments coming from executives at Golden Boy Promotions is that they believe this fight could break the all time mark for PPV buys set by Mayweather’s junior middleweight title win over Oscar De La Hoya in 2007 with 2.4 million buys. Some execs, like company CEO Richard Schaefer, have predicted that the fight could accrue as much as 3 million buys.
http://www.examiner.com/x-34564-New-England-Boxing-Examiner~y2010m2d16-Pacquiao-and-Mayweather-Rule-Boxing-PPV-in-2009 – Last Year Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather ruled boxing PPV.
While the 3 million estimate might be a little high, we should take Schaefer and Golden Boy’s predictions into account because they do have a track record of living up to their predictions and exceeding them.
In 2007, Mayweather – De La Hoya was expected to break the all time PPV record for a nonheavyweight fight set by De La Hoya’s controversial welterweight title loss to Felix Trinidad in 1999 (1.4 million buys). Golden Boy was able to shatter that record and surpass Lennox Lewis – Evander Holyfield I as the biggest selling PPV of all time regardless of weight class.
In 2009, Floyd Mayweather’s comeback fight against lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez was originally being discussed as a fight to be shown on regular HBO instead of PPV. At the financial demands of Mayweather, the fight ended up on PPV and sold over 1 million…far surpassing most insiders expectations.
So now on May 1st we’ve got two of the top three welterweights and pound for pound fighters in the world, who have established track records, who don’t like each other coming off a attention getting media tour with a 4 part 24/7 series coming on HBO.
Mosley is likable and a great fighter. Mayweather doesn’t mind playing the villain. And despite a myth that is reported on the Internet from time to time, not everyone watches Mayweather fights in hopes that he will lose. He has a fan base in the urban American market that boxing hasn’t seen since Mike Tyson.
Can Mosley – Mayweather break the all time PPV record? I’m not sure but I’m not laughing when some people say it.
