While ?Battle of East and West? organizers finalize the pay-per-view numbers of the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton match, fight fans are now wondering how much PPV revenue could the Filipino boxer generate with former-pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Pacquiao, who has wrested the International Boxing Association (IBO) and Ring Magazine junior welterweight titles from Hatton, is expected to choose his next opponent from a host of boxers that include Mayweather, Miguel Cotto and Shane Mosley among others.
However, most boxing analysts see a Mayweather fight for Pacquiao as the Filipino?s confirmation as ?all time boxing great?.
Pacquiao took over the pound-for-pound title after defeating Oscar de la Hoya and sending him into retirement. He cemented his stature as top P4P fighter by dominating the likes of de la Hoya, Hatton and David Diaz.
?The fight the world wants to see is him against Floyd Mayweather Jr., who announced his unretirement hours before this (Pacquiao-Hatton) fight,? said ESPN?s Dan Rafael in one of his articles.
Mayweather will face Pacquiao?s bitter rival Juan Manuel Marquez on July 18.
?The winner, especially if it’s Mayweather, against Pacquiao will be by far the biggest fight in boxing. It will happen eventually, because the money is just too great for it not to happen,? said Rafael.
Mayweather?s the ?World Awaits? match with now retired boxing great de la Hoya generated 2.4 million buys ($134 million) in PPV while Pacquiao?s ?Dream Match? (also with de la Hoya) garnered 1.25 million buys ($70 million).
The only other fights that reached similar buys were between de la Hoya and Bernard Hopkins (1 million buys) in 2004 and between de la Hoya and Felix Trinidad (1.4 million buys) in 1999.
Organizers projected that the Pacquiao-Hatton fight could reach the 2 million PPV mark.
