After a very sluggish first half, the pay-per-view boxing category is set to explode this fall, with at least four scheduled marquee pay-per-view boxing cards that the industry hopes will deliver knockout buys and revenues.
Two of the four fights will feature arguably the two biggest draws in the PPV-event category, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. Pacquiao is scheduled to fight junior lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez on Nov. 12 ? in their third matchup ? while Mayweather will return to the ring after 16 months to fight World Boxing Council welterweight champion Victor Ortiz.
In October, HBO plans to distribute a PPV bout pitting recently-crowned light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins against former champ Chad Dawson, while boxing promotion company Top Rank will present a Dec. 3 rematch between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito, according to Top Rank president Todd DuBoef.
Industry executives are welcoming the bustling fall schedule for a category that?s had just one major event so far this year, the May 7 Pacquiao-Shane Mosley fight, according to Mark Boccardi, senior vice president of programming and business development for In Demand .
While Top Rank holds the PPV rights to Pacquiao-Marquez and Cotto-Margarito, it has not chosen a distribution partner. DuBoef would not say which companies are in the running, but sources close to the situation said Showtime and HBO are competing for the rights.
Executives from the premium networks would not comment on the matter.
The fight?s distributor will have to bring to the table a promotional relationship similar to the one Showtime developed with sister broadcast network CBS for Pacquiao- Mosley. CBS provided promos for the fight and broadcast two episodes of Showtime?s preview series Fight Camp 360: Pacquiao-Mosley. The extra promotion helped generate more than 1.3 million PPV buys.
?I think the May fight changed the climate for PPV distribution, and I don?t see us going back to an older model,? DuBoef said.
HBO Sports senior vice president Mark Taffet would not speculate on the performance of the Mayweather-Ortiz bout, but added that Mayweather has been one of the sport?s biggest draws over the past three years.
