2010's biggest events: Where does Pac-May rank? (part 2)

Global Athletic Events

This weekend, the United States is enjoying an unofficial national holiday. Super Bowl XLIV (American football) between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans will be played this Sunday, a massive sports event expected to draw about 150 million viewers.

While the American football finale is the most profitable athletic event in the world (according to Forbes), it is not the most watched or the most popular when taking into consideration all global sporting events.

Here are the top six sports events for 2010.

# 6 Wimbledon (Tennis)

Est. Viewers: 30 million

Wimbledon, along with the U.S. Open and Australian Open, is tennis' biggest event. It is estimated that over 700 million people around the world follow tennis.

Wimbledon features U.S. and international stars such as Swiss Roger Federer, Spain's Rafael Nadal, and American Andy Roddick. Therefore, viewers come from every continent around the globe.

Rank: # 6 Wimbledon Page

Wimbledon draws about 30 million viewers. There is no singular championship in tennis, and elite players compete in multiple Grand Slam tournaments throughout the year. This may be responsible in diluting viewership.

You miss one Grand Slam tournament, and you can watch another one months later - unlike basketball, baseball, American football or hockey. Still, tennis' large volume of following as a sport translate into a mass audience. And Wimbledon is considered the most prestigious and storied

# 5 Formula One Championship (Racing)

Rank: # 5 Formula 1 Page

Est. Viewers: 115 million

Formula One racing is a highly popular event in select regions around the world. This racing championship is most popular in Africa and South America.

North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia also contributes to the viewership.

At 115 million viewers, Formula One remains a fixture as one of the most followed sporting events in any year.

# 4 PENDING - Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather (Boxing)

Rank: # 4 Pacquiao on Facebook

Est. Viewers: 120 million (Assumption: 95% ratings in the Philippines, translating to 90+ million viewers in the archipelago. Plus 30 million viewers in the U.S. and globally.)

Yes. As everyone knows, all sports and boxing fans are disheartened that the camps of boxing's pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao and its former pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, Jr could not agree to terms in order to make this super fight happen. To place things in perspective, Pacquiao vs Mayweather is the sport's biggest fight in over 30 years, since Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier in the mid-1970s.

Additionally, most boxing experts predict this fight to be the highest grossing fight in terms of live gate and pay-per-views (PPV) in history. That could translate to $200 to $250 million in revenues for a single bout. Let's see if the two sides can now agree to a proper drug testing protocol.

# 3 Super Bowl XLIV (American Football)

Rank: # 3 Super Bowl XLIV

2010: Indianapolis Colts vs New Orleans Saints

Est. Viewers: 150 million

The Super Bowl is considered the world's most profitable annual sports event. CBS is covering the event this year, and is charging $2.8 million for each 30-second television commercial. Despite a sagging U.S. economy, companies are still eager to place tv's most prime commercial spots given the 150 million in estimated viewership. In 2009's game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals, close to 40% of all U.S. television sets were tuned in to the game. The Super Bowl brand is considered more valuable than the World Cup, World Series, and Summer Olympics.

Over 160 million viewers caught a portion of the Super Bowl game in 2009 between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the St. Louis Cardinals. The game is by far the largest sporting event in the United States, trumping baseball's World Series, and the NBA championship. It is considered an unofficial holiday in America.

# 2 Vancouver 2010 (Olympic Winter Games)

Rank: # 2 Vancouver '10

Est. Viewers: 200 million

NBC estimates that the Vancouver 2010 Games will be viewed by close to 200 million.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police will need to provide security for an estimated 5,500 athletes and coaches, 11,000 media and 350,000 visitors that will travel to Vancouver in February. The costs for providing such security is estimated at over $600 million.

Olympic Games generate massive following due to nationalistic sentiments from citizens around the world. Athletes that compete in these events are not just personal successes, but also national icons and flag bearers. These translate into a mass global audience.

# 1 FIFA World Cup (Soccer)

Rank # 1: FIFA 2010

Est. Viewers: 275 - 325 million

Over 200 million viewers watched the UEFA League final in 2009 - more than the Super Bowl. The UEFA League final is not even the FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup takes place only once every four years.

Like the Olympic Games, with a loyal global following, it remains the biggest sports event on the planet. Fans from around the world fly to the chosen venue on a sports / soccer pilgrimage.

This year, the games will take place in South Africa.

Author:Marv Dumon

Source: examiner.com

PACQUIAO-VALERO WOULD BE MORE EXCITING THAN A FIGHT AGAINST MAYWEATHER

The spectacular performance of WBC lightweight champion Edwin Valero who hammered interim champion Antonio DeMarco so badly for most of nine rounds that the Mexican’s corner stopped the fight before the start of the tenth has once again revived talk of a clash between the Venezuelan knockout artist and the “Fighter of the Decade” Manny Pacquiao.

Valero has always wanted to fight Pacquiao and even when visiting the Philippines as guest at Pacquiao’s 30th birthday celebration in December 2008, Valero reiterated his desire to face Pacquiao and predicted he would beat him in an interview with us at the PLDT offices of businessman-sportsman Manny Pangilinan when Valero and former WBC lightweight champion David Diaz paid Pangilinan a courtesy call.

Pacquiao has said he would never back out of a challenge provided the negotiations go well and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum believes a Pacquiao-Valero showdown would be sensational but that Valero will first have to move up to 140 pounds and prove himself at that weight before he get a shot at the reigning pound-for-pound king.

Boxingscene.com’s Rick Reeno spoke to Arum who wants Valero to fight some of the better names at 140 pounds including WBO champion Timothy Bradley to earn a shot at Pacquiao.

Arum told Reeno, "Valero is a very smart guy. He has a real goal. He wants to fight Manny Pacquiao and that's the reason he went with us. But to fight Manny Pacquiao he has to prove himself at 140. He has to get a visa. I won't have any problem getting him licensed in Nevada now that they changed the rule. It used to be where, if you had a bad [MRI] result, you were out. They changed that and Valero's MRIs are perfect."

Arum indicated the plan for Valero would be move up to 140 because he is having trouble making the lightweight limit of 135 pounds.

Like most fight fans as well as the media, Reeno said Arum was impressed with Valero's performance on Saturday. He displayed his ability to box in a fight where most expected DeMarco to play the role of the boxer.

Arum noted Valero “has balls, maybe too much balls. Valero showed that he has a lot more boxing skill than people thought.” Arum added “A fight between him and Manny would be f**king unbelievable."

A clash between the undefeated Valero who has a record of 27 knockouts in 27 fights and Pacaquio because of their aggressive styles produce an action-packed bout that would surely excite fight fans far more than the defensive-oriented Mayweather would against Pacquiao.

Author: Ronnie Nathanielsz

Source: examiner.com

The Replacements Might Spell Disaster for Either Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather… Or Both

Tungod, Inabanga, Bohol – When the highly anticipated Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown fell through, most boxing fans and pundits probably thought that anything else would be a huge letdown. I am not about to disagree with them, though… not unless they are thinking that the replacements in Joshua Clottey and Sugar Shane Mosley for Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr., respectively, are mere pushovers and nothing but keep-busy fights. While the much-ballyhooed clash between the consensus top dogs in the sport still remains incomparable in terms of significance and magnitude, the Pacquiao-Clottey and Mayweather-Mosley encounters are certainly a great way to test the mettles of the sport’s consensus best fighters pound for pound as well.

There are actually three possibilities when all is said and done. The first one, probably the last thing that the promoters would not want to happen, is if both Pacquiao and Mayweather lose their respective matchups. Second would be if one of them loses. The third possibility is if both of them wins, which definitely makes the impending barnburner a whole lot more mouthwatering and outright necessary. Take note that the possibility of draw verdicts weren’t taken into account. After all, a draw could be considered as a loss for either Pacquiao or Mayweather.

But before we jump into the conclusion that the third possibility just might be the most probable outcome, let’s first try to examine the matchups.

We start our discussions with what will perhaps turn out to be the more exciting bout – the Pacquiao-Clottey faceoff. Any contest with the name Manny Pacquiao in it should be assurance enough for a thrilling and exhilarating boxing spectacle. The odds are expected to be stacked against the fire-breathing Pinoy’s opponent in former IBF welterweight champion Joshua “Grand Master” Clottey (35-3-0, 20 KOs). This is no surprise, considering that the fighter out of Ghana, by way of Bronx, New York lost to the same guy who was destroyed by Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) of the Philippines, not to mention that the Filipino is universally considered as the best fighter pound for pound at present. But before you Pacman fanatics get too excited, please allow me to point out a couple of things that might make you think twice about Clottey being just a walk-in-the-park for the Pinoy great.

Make no mistake about it. Joshua Clottey is probably the best and most dangerous Pacquiao opponent to date, among the Pinoy pug’s long list of opponents. The potent combination of size, speed, stamina, skill, power, and chin is certainly a tall order for even a fighter like Pacquiao to overcome. Don’t be fooled by Clottey’s 3 losses. His first loss to Carlos Baldomir, who eventually became a welterweight champion, was due to disqualification with Clottey ahead in all three scorecards at the time of the halt. In his second setback, Clottey was making a good account of himself before sustaining an injured left hand in the fourth canto and was basically fighting one-handed from round 5 onwards against the hard-punching Antonio “Loaded Hands” Margarito. Clottey’s third loss, against Cotto, as we all know, was very much closer than the scorecards would suggest.

Clottey has top-notch defensive skills. Using his gloves and arms to protect himself the way Ronald “Winky” Wright does, the “Grand Master” has always finished fights with more than enough gas in his tank. Of course, Pacquiao is definitely in a league of his own, but Clottey could very well pose a lot of problems for the General Santos native. Clottey boasts a great left hook downstairs and up, often followed by a quick right straight. Team Pacquiao should also take note of Clottey’s tendency to come in with his head first. With their contrasting fighting stance, it is not farfetched that Pacquiao could sustain a cut that might hinder his vision just like he did in his first bout against Morales. We all know what happened to that fight. I don’t see Pacquiao knocking Clottey out in this confrontation… but then again, Pacquiao has made the habit of making surprises and exceeding expectations. He might once again do it this time around.

Now let’s move to the other one – the Mayweather-Mosley snoozefest. Though I believe that this will probably be more significant than Pacquiao-Clottey, I couldn’t help but consider Mayweather’s propensity to run and he might do just that against Mosley, a fighter who has a legitimate shot at getting one of the O’s in Mayweather’s immaculate record. If Mayweather ran against fighters who had no chance of hurting him, how much more against a man who can hurt him… hurt him really bad at that? With those bum hands and xycloccain or whatever they call that banned substance Mayweather has been using to numb his fragile fists, I don’t know what else to expect with this fight other than a marathon.

Author: Reylan Loberternos

Source: Sportales.com

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: BOB ARUM

30,000 Pacquiao-Clottey tix already sold

GL: What's the latest and greatest, and what updates can you give us on Top Rank's upcoming fights, starting with The Event? "The tickets are going unbelievably well, the requests for Manny are unreal. As far as the 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, all of the mainline outlets, not sports, which is something really special for us. Also, in the sports world, ESPN the Magazine is doing a five page story on Joshua Clottey, and we feel really good about that."

GL: Last time we spoke, you told me that 25,000 tickets were already sold. Is that true?

The Bobfather: Yes, we've sold well over 30,000 now. We were in Mexico, Jerry Jones and myself, in Mexico City and Monterey, and the response we got over there was ridiculous.

GL: Are you concerned that the recent consummation of the fight between Mosley and Mayweather trumps this event?

The Bobfather: Not at all. Pacquiao has an enormous following, and that following will come out for the fight. You've got to realize that most of our fans are enamored of Pacquiao and want to see him fight Clottey. I think the other fight will do well as well.

GL: As you know, Mosley is going to be going along with the random testing that Mayweather is requesting. If Mayweather's successful against Mosley, is your position against the random testing still firm?

The Bobfather: We have no absolute problem with random testing, as long as it's urinalysis, and as long as it's done by a legitamite boxing comission. We are not going to go along with random blood testing that takes us anywhere near where the fight is going to be.

GL: If Mayweather's demand, and going public, for random drug testing weren't in poor taste, as somebody involved with boxing, do you think we need better standards of testing to be mandatory and mandated by commissions?

The Bobfather: Yes, I think that it might be feasible in certain cases, but I think everything that has to be done can be done with urine analysis. Including now, this new urine analysis that is even more effective than blood testing, which really isn't effective at all, in discovering HGH. Blood testing is very dangerous, particularly when dealing with fighters, who have to use their arms. Very often, when you go in to give your blood, as we all do when we have physicals, you have the nurses miss the veins, and so forth, and the arm is sore for a few days. If you're training for a fight, that's not very good. You certainly don't want to have blood taken right after a performance, in a dressing room, where the risk of infection is high.

GL: Is there any word yet on who Margarito is going to be facing on the undercard?

The Bobfather: No, we're still working on that, we'll reveal that shortly.

GL: You have a name in mind already?

The Bobfather: No, not really.

GL: Is Pavlik-Martinez closed?

The Bobfather: It's done, as far as I know. Contracts went out to Lou DiBella, and Pavlik, and all of the terms have been agreed to. It's on April 17th, in Atlantic City, at Boardwalk Hall.

GL: When will Juan Manuel Lopez's next fight take place?

The Bobfather: It will probably be in June or July. We've had discussions with HBO to do an electronic double header. Gamboa and Caballero in one place, I guess Miami, and Lopez and the winner of Conception-Santiago, who are fighting next Saturday in Puerto Rico.

GL: Is Cotto-Foreman good to go?

The Bobfather: It's good to go if it's for June 12th. We haven't talked terms, because we're working out whether it's going to be on regular HBO or PPV.

GL: What else?

The Bobfather: Fox Sports Series is going extremely well. Every show is really hitting home, getting great ratings. The show from Mexico last week was tremendous, we have a show tonight from Texas. It should be two really good fights, television pictures are wonderfull, we're lighting everything different. It's day and night, production wise than ESPN's show. Just watch it, the fights have been very good, but aside from that, the quality of the broadcast, you can see so clearly. It's really something special.

GL: Closing thoughts.

The Bobfather: I think everything is good, we're working very hard for March 13th. We're working very hard for February 13th, which is going to be a big show for the Phillippine community, four Phillpino fighters fighting four Latin fighters. It's making a lot of headlines in the Phillipines, so we're very excited with what we've been doing. We're in the planning stages for a big show in May as well. It will probably be from Mexico, in Agua Caliente, where they have a festival for 1,000,000, and the bull ring holds close to 30,000. We did a show there two years ago that was extremely successful and we're hoping to do another one.

Author: G. Leon

Source: boxingtalk.com

Prestigious exposure: "60 Minutes" to profile Manny Pacquiao

You must know the old joke about the guy who was so slow that it took him an hour and a half to watch the seminal CBS TV magazine show, "60 Minutes."

Well, the long running Sunday night program is zeroing in on Pinoy Idol Manny Pacquiao and it's no joke.

Promoter Bob Arum said CBS is going to start shooting material next Sunday at Coach Freddie Roach's funky Wild Card Gym in a scruffy section of Hollywood.

Maybe the CBS cameras can get some pithy quotes about Megamanny from that kid in Las Vegas, that Mayweather character.

"It just shows that interest in Manny has transcended sports, gone beyond that," Arum said by phone Sunday from his Las Vegas home.

"Good Morning America on the ABC network is also going to do something on Manny. It is really phenomenal how the interest is widening on Pacman."

The popular program does the occasional sports related profile, interview or story but not many.

For example, basketball superstars Michael Jordan and LeBron James have been put under the "60 Minutes" media microscope.

It was not immediately known which of the "60 Minutes" reporters has been assigned to interview Pacquiao. I've been told the Pacquiao piece won't air until next fall.

Off the top of my alleged head, the last "60 Minutes" boxing related piece was likely one on Mike Tyson but I will have to check that.

It will be interesting to see if the profile airs before Pacman's March 13 bout in Dallas against Joshua Clottey.

On another front, Arum said that interest in the Mayweather-Shane Mosley bout May 1 (Las Vegas) is no detrimient to Pacman.

"Absolutely it is something that will just add interest to Manny's fight in Texas and what he might do after that if he can beat the tough Clottey."

Arum repeated his earlier statements that "over 30,000 tickets" have been sold for the Pacman-Clottey bout at the Cowboys football stadium in Arlington, Texas.

From Wikipedia on "60 Minutes":

60 Minutes is an American television newsmagazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by long-time producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation. It has been among the top-rated TV programs for much of its life, and has garnered numerous awards over the years, including 78 Emmys (as of 2007)[1] . It is considered by many to be the preeminent investigative television program in the United States.

Author: Michael Marley

Source: examiner.com