MANILA, Philippines – Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) announced that the “Starpower” fight card headlining the controversial Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz fight generated 1.25 million pay-per-view (PPV) buys.
"Starpower showed again why they call him ‘Money’ Mayweather," Richard Schaefer, GBP Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement.
"When it comes to pay-per-view, Floyd is clearly in a league of his own,” he added.
GBP said the card earned $78,440,000 in PPV revenue.
The promotional outfit said Mayweather has now appeared in 3 biggest non-heavyweight pay-per-view events, including Mayweather versus Oscar de la Hoya ($136,853,700), Mayweather versus Ortiz ($78,440,000 million) and Mayweather versus Sugar Shane Mosley ($78,330,000 million).
"My motto is 'hard work and dedication' and I have shown this throughout my entire career, which has allowed me to go out and perform each time I step in the ring. I give the fans everything I have with the best competition and exciting fights. I must be doing something right as they keep buying my fights and I appreciate their tremendous support. It feels good to be able to generate such a great interest in the sport," was Mayweather’s statement.
1.5M target missed
A boxing analyst, meanwhile, pointed out that GBP missed its 1.5 million-target for the Mayweather-Ortiz fight.
“Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy's CEO, had predicted beforehand that the fight would do 1.5 million buys. Promoters are always overhyping estimated PPV buys, so that's no surprise,” said Tim Starks in Queensberryrules.com.
He said that the added charge in the PPV purchases may have hurt the sales.
“Originally, I thought 1.5 million was a realistic figure. That, though, was before we knew they would be charging $59.95 (standard) and $69.95 (high-def), or $5 more than any pay-per-view ever,” he said.