The November welterweight title fight between pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao (50-3, 38 KO's) and Puerto Rican superstar Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27 KO's) was the top drawing boxing Pay-Per-View of the year according to yahoo.com.
The fight fell behind the Ultimate Fighting Championship's "UFC: 100" extravaganza for top drawing PPV honors of the year. Pacquiao - Cotto was purchased in 1.4 million homes while the UFC card drew 1.6 million PPV buys.
Trailing behind both PPV's was the comeback of Floyd Mayweather (40-0, 25 KO's) in September when he unanimously outpointed lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KO's). That PPV, supported by a spectacular undercard featuring a lightweight title between Michael Katsidis vs. Vicente Escobedo and Chris John vs. Rocky Juarez, drew 1.2 million PPV buys. Mayweather - Marquez was also shown in hundreds of movie theater's across the United States. Figures for theater showings of the fight count towards closed circuit sales, not PPV buys.
Both fights earned considerable exposure from HBO's 24/7 series. The Pacquiao - Cotto 24/7 starred both fighters and their camps. Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach, a Massachusetts native, was featured in the Pacquiao - Cotto series and has thus far been featured in 4 installments of the series (Mayweather vs. Oscar De La Hoya and Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya, Hatton and Cotto).
There will be no 24/7 series for the upcoming Pacquiao welterweight title defense against Joshua Clottey. Instead, HBO will broadcast an installment of their "Countdown" series that they regularly produced prior to the advent of 24/7.
Mayweather's upcoming title challenge against Sugar Shane Mosley will
get the 24/7 treatment. HBO will broadcast 4 episodes leading up the fight May 1st.
Of course, the fight everyone hopes to see if Pacquiao vs. Mayweather down the line. That bout, should it happen, is expected to break all PPV sales records. The current record for PPV buys is 2.4 million for Mayweather's junior middleweight title win against De La Hoya in 2007.
Author: Peter Czymbor
source: examiner.com
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