The "All Things Mayweather/Pacquiao" Express!!!!!!

But how do I know those ppv numbers are true numbers and not lies that floyd is using to market himself?

 

Mayweather vs Maidana with a weak undercard would do 700k tops

 

biggest draw but with the help of a stacked undercard with names and fighting on cinco de mayo.

most people knows that mayweather knows when to fight his opponents that doesn't have speed. The last fighter with speed he fought was Judah.

 

Because he's the biggest draw in boxing.

 

Because they are released via a press release from HBO and Showtime with a breakdown of the cable and satellite buys as well as the revenue generated. Ypu can say they are lies, but that would mean that large corporations are making up fake numbers just to make Mayweather look good. You can be the judge of how plausible that is.

 

You absolutely can compare now to 10 years ago. You make it sound like the landscape of boxing has fundamentally shifted. The sport is the same as it was 10 years ago, the population hasn't grown that much, the number of cable subscribers hasn't undergone a major shift, the sport as a whole hasn't become vastly more popular in the past 10 years aside from Mayweather and Pacquiao. We're not talking comparing now to the pre-PPV era of the 1980s when few people had cable and everybody would watch the fights on CCTV. We're talking 2004.

To prove my point, if you look at the general PPV numbers once you remove Mayweather and Pacquiao, it's actually a slightly lower overall buy rate than in 2004. Meaning that boxing as a whole is LESS popular now than in 2004. And even given that, Mayweather consistently does better numbers than De La Hoya. That's pretty amazing, especially when you consider he's not part of a demographic with a built-in fanbase.

The only thing different between now and 10 years ago is that Mayweather is a bigger draw than anybody else since the heyday of the heavyweights in the 1990s.

Moreover, I don't think De La Hoya is any more responsible for Mayweather being a huge draw than Chavez was responsible for De La Hoya becoming a huge draw. DLH was as much in Mayweather's debt for breaking the PPV record as Mayweather was in DLH's debt. That's why they did better together than either had ever previously done alone. Far better.

 

The real judgment is realizing how much the stacked undercards boost mayweather's numbers. Maidana vs Mayweather with a weak undercard would do 700k tops.

 

But here's the thing - 700k buys is still a great PPV number. Compare that to Oscar, who only beat 700k buys in his fights with Mosley, Hopkins, Whitaker, Trinidad, and Vargas - legends, hall of famers, and fighters far more popular at the time than Maidana is or ever will be.

And it's almost certainly going to do better than 700k buys. We're comparing Mayweather only to himself. If that's not the ultimate proof that he's the biggest draw in boxing since Tyson, I don't know what is.

 

Who are these top names on the undercard then? Who were the top names on the May/Guerrero undercard?

 

Seems to me he is a huge PPV draw, so likely the reason people believe that to be true.

I believe you have the people who want to see him lose, people who want him to win, but people easily recognize exceptional talent. Fact is people like to see people do things that most or no one else can do. Floyd's skill set clearly have shown that he is one of a kind in the history of this game.

 

You're comparing very different times. Now there's more access, more establishments buying PPV, more tvs, more partnerships, more globalization, better marketing/easier way to reach consumers, etc. It's not exactly an apple to apple comparison. There's a different baseline now and even UFC fights consistently do 500k or so.

 

Too many flaws in your argument to even contemplate addressing the whole post. We can spend all day arguing the highlighted part alone.

You are simply wrong on that point as well. A young DLH was already a bigger PPV draw than Chavez when he fought him on PPV, so even without Chavez on his resume he would be a big star.

Floyd on the other hand was already 30 years old, had people walking out of his fights and his PPV pull was less than stellar.

Without DLH, FLoyd never becomes the star he is today. To argue that is simply ignorant:deal

 

Once again, the fight was on cinco de mayo and has latino fighters on their undercard.

 

Only a clown would think he wouldn't be. One of the greatest defensive fighters ever to lace them up and probably the best boxing IQ ever. Throw in KO power and I don't see how one think he loses outside of someone at a ridiculous weight class. Who else in history has climbed weight like Floyd and succeeded in the manner he has, with as little punching power as Floyd has?

Don't get me wrong, I think Floyd is a strong guy and punches pretty hard, but his hands just are not that of a power puncher.

 

Bernard hopkins against better competition and at 40+ but only at 160 and175