Welcome to a special edition of Payout Perspective as we take a look at Saturday’s fight between Sugar Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Nevada.
Pacquiao dominates Mosley
A simple equation can explain Saturday night’s performance:
Pacquiao >Mosley = Joshua Clottey
Although Mosley told everyone that he was going to take the fight to Pacquiao, he looked more like Joshua Clottey throughout the fight: backing up and unable to use combinations.
While each fighter scored knockdowns, Mosley’s was more of a push than a punch. This only angered Pacquiao who attempted to end the fight in the last two rounds although he was ahead by a huge margin. Whatever you think of the strategy, Pacquiao does not lie when he says he wants the fans to see a good show.
The crowd booed Mosley’s effort and the sportsmanship each fighter possessed as it seemed that the fighters touched gloves at each pause in the action.
It looks like Pacquiao has a November 2011 date set with…Juan Manuel Marquez. This may be the most competitive bout for Pacquiao in a couple years…or we may get another older fighter finding away to escape a barrage of Pacquiao combinations.
Unlike other boxing PPVs, this card had two exciting undercards. First, we had the return of Kelly Pavlik in an entertaining fight against Alfonso Lopez. Next, Jorge Arce defeated Wilfredo Vasquez, Jr. when Vasquez’s corner threw in the towel. According to the scorecards, Vasquez may have had the narrow lead. I was under the impression that the corner cannot stop the fight be throwing in the towel (see Yuri Foreman vs. Miguel Cotto). Regardless, it was an entertaining fight.
Attendance and Gate
As with every Pacquiao fight, it was a sellout. This time 16,412 fans went to the MGM Grand. Dan Rafael of ESPN tweeted that the final gate was $8,882,600. In comparison, Rafael pointed out Pac-Mosley was the 14th biggest gate in Nevada history but $3.85 million more than the #1 UFC gate in Nevada history.
The weigh-ins garnered 4,000 people and turned away another 2,000. Who says boxing is dead? Well, maybe its just the Pacquiao effect?
Twitter
Pacquiao, Jinkee, Mosley, Jim Gray and (undercard fighter Jorge) Arce all trended worldwide throughout the night. Also, Mosley’s girlfriend, Bella Gonzalez trended on twitter.
Showtime and estimated buys
This was the first boxing PPV put on by Showtime since Bob Arum left longtime partner HBO. Similar to HBO’s 24/7 series, it aired Fight Camp 360, a four-part series featuring the camps of Mosley and Pacquiao. While the episodes ran on CBS and Showtime, ratings-wise, it did not fare well. Despite low ratings for Fight Camp 360, it served its purpose in promoting the match.
The CBS exposure was one of the reasons Arum chose Showtime over HBO. Fight Camp 360 aired the day of the Final Four and in prime time a week before the fight. It also aired commercials throughout CBS programming.
Bob Arum told the NY Times that he expects the buys for Saturday’s fight to be roughly around 1.2 million. This would be the same as Pacquiao’s fight with Antonio Margarito. While this may not be as many buys as Arum would have wanted, the opportunity to get his product in front of more eyes on network television and for it to one day be back on CBS would be an ideal goal.
Sponsors
The main sponsors for Saturday night were O’Reilly Auto Parts, Mortal Kombat (also at UFC 129), AT&T and Smart – the leading wireless service provider in the Philippines. Nike also was prominent sponsor. As always, Tecate was big on fight night and leading up to the fight. It was able to do more this Pacquiao fight than others since the fight was announced sooner than past Pacquiao fights.
With the announcement (or soon to be) of Marquez-Pacquiao III, expect Tecate to make a huge promotional push for November 2011.
With the restructured Pacquiao management team, Hewlett Packard signed a deal with Pacquiao to endorse its new line of tablet computers. The NY Times had an interesting piece on the woman behind it all. Hopefully this works out for Team Pacquiao. Did anyone else notice that after Manny’s post-fight interview he ended with the talking point of checking out his web site, mpboxing.com?
Top Rank offers fight online
Top Rank signed a deal with NeuLion, Inc. to offer the fight online. NeuLion is the same company that worked with the UFC to upgrade UFC.tv. In addition, the Top Rank web site offered other streaming in lead-up to the fight. Its a step in the right direction for boxing to reach out to a younger demographic.
Odds and Ends
Before I forget, did any other DirecTV subscribers notice that if you ordered UFC 129 online, you could not watch on other televisions in your home as you normally could. For Mosley-Pacquiao, I was able to watch on multiple televisions when ordering online.
The Showtime broadcast crew was decent, although the HBO crew of Lampley, Kellerman, Steward, et al is better. Gus Johnson is still a better basketball announcer than anything. He did reference MMA when describing one of Pacquiao’s punches as a “Superman Punch.”
Jim Gray or Larry Merchant?
Best dialogue during the Fight Camp 360 series was when Manny Pacquiao told former champ Manny Tapia that he liked the “purse” better than the “belt”. Referring to the payout rather than his championship belt.
UPDATE – 5/11/11
Forgot to include EA Sports’ participation which included this odd interaction between Teddy Atlas and video game likenesses of Pacquiao and Mosley. EA was promoting its game Fight Night Champion.
Jason,
Awesome article. I love to see an analysis of a big boxing card.
Couple of minor points – the “greater than” sign in your formula is backwards – it actually reads Pacquiao “is less than” Mosely.
Also, you can in fact stop the fight by throwing in the towel. The ref in the Cotto-Foreman fight was wrong to let it continue after the corner threw in the towel. His excuse was that the towel was thrown accidentally and no-one in Foreman’s corner owned up to having thrown it, thus he (the ref) was justified in ignoring it and continuing the fight. Not a good move by the referee to essentially overrule the corner.
I think 1.2M buys is a solid number. Manny’s fight against Margarito brought a lot of Mexican and Latino eyes which helped that number (and the gate). This fight was 100% Pacquiao. I don’t think Mosely has a fan base left after his recent performances. A match-up with Marquez should do north of 1.2M as again, the fight pulls the Latino population. Not to mention it’s a much much better match-up.
Diego,
Thanks. As you can see, I am a writer not a math major. 🙂
I updated the mark so that Pac Man is greater than Mosley. I guess I was thinking the Pac Man symbol. Here is another equation from the night:
Pac Man < Bella Gonzalez, but Pac Man> Paris Hilton
I think we can agree we that.
Also, I agree with the JMM matchup. I think they can sell the triology aspect of the fight and if anyone has seen the last 2 fights you would want to see a third. Arguably, Pacquiao lost the last fight.
Could someone direct me towards information about the history of the term “card” as it applies to prizefighting? I’ve heard it used to refer to single bouts, but also entire events (“two interesting undercards”, “the UFC 121 fight card”). It’s maddening to someone like me who is a stickler for semantics.
“Who says boxing is dead? Well, maybe its just the Pacquiao effect?”‘
It’s funny how a lot of articles in the wake of this event use the numbers to highlight boxing’s continued success. It is absolutely because of Manny Pacquiao. Comparisons to the UFC’s annual PPV numbers would suggest otherwise. It’s a sport that at this point has only two major draws, and one of them is in a state of flux “retirement.” It’s hard to be a big boxing fan. I hope that one day the major boxing promoters and sanctioning bodies restructure the way the sport is run. *sigh*
http://www.bjpenn.com/profiles/blogs/boxing-vs-mma-wheres-the-money
Most high profile boxing matches are on premium cable. Oh the horror of not paying $55 every month. I mean how can anybody compete with Rampage vs Hamill?
MMA fans need to stop worrying about boxing and focus on their own sport.
MMA fans need to realize that there is a lot of good boxing out there and catch some of it. I love both sports, but I admit it definitely helps that most boxing is “free” or I probably wouldn’t watch as much of it.
Looking forward to the next round of the Super 6 this weekend.
I like what Arum is saying (a first for me) about getting big boxing fights back on network TV. If he and other high-profile boxing figures are focused on this goal, it would be the best thing for boxing in a LONG time. Please CBS, take heed!
I love both sports there both my favorite to watch but if I dont want to pay for a ppv I can go to a local bar I watch a ufc card now with boxing I have to order it no bars have boxing around where I live it sucks I had to dish out 65$ for a main evemt where pinche moshley dosent want to fight and just sell out mane his girl needs to dump him and roll wit me
funny thing when dela hoya said he,s retiring some announcer from the mma world forgot if its rogan or mayba dana..said that when delahoya retires boxing wont hit the 1 MILLION PPV mark…an now people are saying that pacman is the last draw…nah when pac retires theyre goinig to build somebody else and its still going to sell ppv….boxing has a huge history…and in the OLYMPICS….it would continue to move forward and with Todd de buef running top rank in the future…it would be much much bigger
I do not think the Corner can throw in the towel in MMA. That may be the case in boxing too. I think ti was taken out to prevent corruption. Back in the day if the towel come in the fight was over. Thatw as it. Now in MMA you can ask the fight to be stopped and the ref can accept it if he sees reason for it but only he can stop the fight. In boxing i do see the towel used but i think the same applies. The ref has to accept it. He can choose to ignore it and maybe ask the fighter. Check out the last rule on the list from the Unified Rules.
* Butting with the head
* Eye gouging of any kind
* Biting
* Hair pulling
* Fish hooking
* Groin attacks of any kind
* Putting a finger into any orifice or into any cut or laceration on an opponent. (see Gouging)
* Small joint manipulation
* Striking to the spine or the back of the head (see Rabbit punch)
* Striking downward using the point of the elbow (see Elbow strike)
* Throat strikes of any kind, including, without limitation, grabbing the trachea
* Clawing, pinching or twisting the flesh
* Grabbing the clavicle
* Kicking the head of a grounded opponent
* Kneeing the head of a grounded opponent
* Stomping a grounded opponent
* Kicking to the kidney with the heel
* Spiking an opponent to the canvas on his head or neck. (see Piledriver)
* Throwing an opponent out of the ring or fenced area
* Holding the shorts or gloves of an opponent
* Spitting at an opponent
* Engaging in unsportsmanlike conduct that causes an injury to an opponent
* Holding the ropes or the fence
* Using abusive language in the ring or fenced area
* Attacking an opponent on or during the break
* Attacking an opponent who is under the care of the referee
* Attacking an opponent after the bell (horn) has sounded the end of a round
* Flagrantly disregarding the instructions of the referee
* Timidity, including, without limitation, avoiding contact with an opponent, intentionally or consistently dropping the mouthpiece or faking an injury
* Interference by the corner
@@@@@ * Throwing in the towel during competition@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
I do not think boxing is dead. If it was people wouldnt tune in to see anyone fight under the rules. If Pacman was playing golf this weekend very few would tune in to see him play because that sport is not that popular. Boxings problem is they do not have many stars. MMA has many more stars so it sales more consistently. A boxing card without the few names boxing has can compete with even the weakest UFC card. Both sports have a strong following. But the UFC is just much better as creates stars. Boxing killed itself in the 80’s at its peak when everyone who could sell a PPV left free tv. Then it got impossible to build names. By the time a boxer pulled in the hardcore boxing fans he was off tv and on PPV before mainstreams fans ever hear of him. They never got to see him. They get to see you when you are a no name or when you are washed up. Anytime in between it cost them $50.
For every main event you pay to see in the UFC. You also get to see 22 other prospects and contenders. In Boxing you get 4-8 guys you never heard of in meaningless fights who you might not ever see again because the main event fighters dont want to cough up the cash for a better under-card. The UFC has TUF, Unleashed, and UFN. Boxing has local no names on Friday Night fights. So they are not dead. They just have very few fighters who get the fans interested. Thats like saying the NFL is dead because the buffalo Bills cant sell out their games when they have no stars. If it was dying no team would sell out.