WHAT WOULD you prefer?: A rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales or a fourth fight between Marco Antonio Barrera and Morales?
HBO, through top executive Mark Taffet, has reported that last weekend?s torrid super-featherweight brawl between Morales and Pacquiao generated 350,000 buys amounting to $15.75 million in pay-per-view income.
The PPV 350,000 buys beat out the 325,000 garnered by the third meeting between Morales and Barrera last Nov. 27.
“Clearly in these weight classes, it?s far and away the biggest revenue generator ever,” Taffet told the website maxboxing.com. “And also you have to look at the second and third Morales-Barrera fights and the Morales-Pacquiao fight and say that Erik Morales has now been in three pay-per-view fights that have in aggregate generated nearly one million buys.”
Despite the strong showing of the Pacquiao?Morales headliner that was staged at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Taffet refuses to confirm that a rematch is already officially scheduled sometime in the fall.
“At this point, there are any number of prospective matchups. 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. Even fights including Marquez would generate significant revenue.”
Before being given the opportunity to square off with Morales again, Pacquiao, 26, is expected to return to the ring sometime in July.
Meanwhile, BBC Sport has come out with its top ten pound for pound list and the Filipino southpaw retained his spot in the inner circle at No. 6.
Middleweight Bernard Hopkins kept his stranglehold of the No. 1 spot. Next are American superlightweight Floyd Mayweather (second), Russian?Australian super-lightweight Kostya Tszyu (third), Mexican superfeather Marco Antonio Barrera (fourth), Morales (fifth), Pacquiao, American super-welter Winky Wright (seventh), Puerto Rican middleweight Felix Trinidad (eighth), Mexican feather Juan Manuel Marquez (ninth) and American light-heavy Glen Johnson (tenth).
But the BBC wrote something intriguing regarding Pacquiao, who lost a close but unanimous decision to Morales.
“Pacquiao was brave in defeat against Erik Morales but the suspicion is growing that he caught Marco Antonio Barrera on a bad night,” the BBC said, alluding to Pacquiao?s eyepopping 11th-round demolition of Barrera at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, in Nov. 2003.
