DESPITE his recent loss to Mexico’s Erik Morales, Manny Pacquiao will remain the country’s premier sporting money machine as a pay-per-view icon and a boxing superstar.
This was revealed yesterday by no less by Mark Taffet of HBO Pay-Per-View, who noted that the 350,000 pay-per-view buys generated by Morales-Pacquiao last Sunday surpassed by 25,000 the number churned in by the third meeting between Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera in November last year.
“Clearly, in these weight classes it’s far and away the biggest revenue generator ever,” Taffet said in an interview with Maxboxing.
The HBO exec said the Morales-Pacquiao clash won by the Mexican by unanimous decision raked in a total of $15.75 million.
Although Pacquiao has yet to be given his share of the pay-per-view revenue by his American promoter Murad Muhammad, talks are already circulating that the Filipino boxing superstar is now planning to sever ties with the M&M Sports top honcho.
ABS-CBN television network reported the other day that “Pacquiao has decided to part ways with Muhammad. He is even planning to sue the fight promoter for failing to follow contract stipulations. He said that a boxing promoter should not earn bigger than the boxer himself.” Taffet indicated that Pacquiao’s loss to Morales has not brought down the Filipino’s stock in world boxing, what with his gallant stand despite suffering a nasty cut in the fifth round.
“This is like [the] ‘Murderers Row’ of the 1927 Yankees when you look at Morales, Pacquiao, Barrera and potentially the inclusion of (Juan Manuel) Marquez in the right fight,” said Taffet. “There’s tremendous, tremendous amounts of interest and this revenue is being generated by these guys.”
Although he pointed out that nothing has yet been set in stone as to talks of a possible Morales-Pacquiao rematch, Taffet pointed out: “At this point, there are any number of prospective match-ups,” he says.
“There’s so much noise still going on between the promoters of the respective fighters in the 126- and 130-pound weight divisions. But I do know Barrera-Morales IV and Morales-Pacquiao II would both be pay-per-view mega-fights at this point.”
