Manny Pacquiao will be facing Jessie Vargas on November 5th on pay-per-view. However, according to Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, HBO will not be the PPV distributor despite a contract with Pacquiao.
The cause might be due to the fact that HBO PPV will be handling the anticipated fight between Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev on November 19th. Certainly, HBO could handle two PPVs in one month if it made economic sense. But, with the diminishing PPV value of Pacquiao, it appears that HBO will not make a guarantee to the once dominant Filipino fighter.
For Pacquiao, it’s a matter of finances. It’s been written that the fighter needs money and his salary as a public official is not sufficient. Frankly, not many people felt like Pacquiao was going to quit boxing.
ESPN’s Dan Rafael notes that Arum has inferred that if HBO will not produce or distribute the PPV, it will make him a free agent. With a potential rematch with Mayweather (yes, really) a possibility next year, HBO may lose out on what (still) could be a big money fight.
Payout Perspective:
Outside of the Mayweather PPV, Pacquiao has not been the bright PPV star he once was. The April 2016 PPV drew between 400-500K PPV buys. Prior to Mayweather, his fight with Chris Algieri mustered just 300K-400K PPV buys. Despite the need to retain Pacquiao, the Vargas fight is nothing that the casual Pacquiao fan will want to purchase. With a long-awaited fight later in the month, HBO probably wants to dedicate its resources to Ward-Kovalev with the knowledge that more boxing fans would be willing to spend their money on that fight than Pacquiao at this point.
HBO was never a good promoter anyway.
Good for HBO, enough of Manny’s safe picks for paydays. Everyone wanted to see him in with Crawford, and he and Arum know this and I have the sense that even Arum understood this. Manny just doesnt understand money, thats why he is in the situation he is in now, he thinks that no matter who he fights he will make the big money. Vargas isnt a bad fighter, but he was beaten convincingly by Bradley. It was Crawford or nothing for HBO. Arum really needs to rethink how he is doing business as a promoter, if he isnt careful, both Showtime and HBO will be contracted with Haymon.
Now if they could only do it with Canelo.
Also did anyone reliable say 400-500k for Pac/Bradley 3. Last I heard that number came from Arum with others saying it might go as low as 300k. It was like the Canelo/Khan fight which GB said was 600k and then Iole said 460k and Glaser saying 332k.
IMO Michael Koncz should have been fired for the comments. I know Manny said it. But at least for the sake of somebody had to pay for something for such a huge blow to Mannys career here in the states. Somebody’s head has to roll!! The comments hurt business!! Koncz!!! He’s gone!! He’s got to go!!
You guys all know I love my boxing, but this fight is garbage and I hope it bombs hard. Sick of arum and pac making crap fights expecting us to pay for it. Pac is broke and is gonna beg for a mayweather fight after this.
Well said Fight Fan…thats what this is all about, getting another shot at Mayweather. Pac has no idea about money. That fight if made would get nowhere near what they got the first time probably not even half…..and Pac would get a small percentage of that cut as well. This is about Pac picking a “safe” opponent. I actually hope Vargas beats him.
Pac has enjoyed guaranteed payouts for too long. He’s been largely insulated from his declining PPV numbers by his promoter and HBO, but I’m guessing that both of them are thinking a paycut is in order. There’s no way he’s getting $20M for this one.
Half Life-
“Now if they could only do it with Canelo.
Also did anyone reliable say 400-500k for Pac/Bradley 3. Last I heard that number came from Arum with others saying it might go as low as 300k. It was like the Canelo/Khan fight which GB said was 600k and then Iole said 460k and Glaser saying 332k.”
Canelo/Khan did 600k. Glaser is never someone source, hes a complete fraud.
Pac/Bradley 3 did about 500k.
I would be surprised if Pacquiao-Vargas did 400k.
But if May-Pac 2 is around the corner then it really doesnt matter
@ Caramel City
I would trust Kevin Iole over Golden Boy, especially since HBO all of sudden decided to not release numbers and again where is the Pac/Bradley 3 number coming from except Bob Arum?
Does this involve.arum and haymon ending lawsuit and owner of cbs saying to freddie roach doing maypac again? How many % did hbo make in the first fight? If its just showtime more money for TR and pacman.
manny is broke , one of the dumbest fighters of all time,
that is the only reason he is fighting again
the ward fight will not sell well either, he is not a draw
if canelo/khan did 300k then oscar lost his ass on that fight
the days of boxers getting guranteed high pay days are over.
hbo has slashed there budget on boxing big time, i wouldnt not be surprised if
they get out of boxing in the next few years. if you had asked me this 15 years ago
i would have laughed.