The pay per view horizon could drastically change next year with Floyd Mayweather Jr no longer the preferred staple and crown jewel of HBO, the king of PPV event on cable television.
For a long time, since Oscar de la Hoya was forced into retirement, Floyd has commanded the prime dates of HBO PPV schedule to the chagrin of Bob Arum?s Top Rank who once accused the cable network giant as a stooge of rival Golden Boy Promotion which handles Mayweather?s business side of boxing.
Mayweather?s last five fights, counting the one he had with de la Hoya, raked in and average of over one million each.
He clearly inherited the throne as PPV king from de la Hoya.
Until rival Manny Pacquiao came along.
Pacquiao?s last five fights also averaged more than one million PPVs, including the 1.25 million buys for his Oscar de la Hoya that he has since topped in fighting Shane Mosley (1.3 million buys).
Mayweather and Pacquiao are not separated by a huge distance in the PPV race but Manny is gaining momentum. If their last fights would be the barometer, Pacquiao could dislodge Mayweather as the PPC master in boxing next year thus coming to full cycle as the sport?s undisputed king
Mayweather?s controversial knockout win over victor Ortiz reportedly just raked in over 1.1 million. In contrast, Pacquiao recorded his highest PPV buys ever, at 1.3 million buys, against Mosley. Before that, he generated 1.25 million buys against Antonio Margarito.
Cracks are also showing inside HBO who lost Pacquiao to rival Showtime (Pacquiao vs Mosley) in May this year. It led to the resignation of its President Ross Greenburg a couple of months after the Pacquiao fight with Mosley which was aired by Showtime.
