Apples and Oranges

This is the inaugural post for Apples and Oranges and it deals with pay-per-view buys. Today espn.com reported that Pacquiao-De La Hoya did 1.25 million buys. For Pacquiao that is a tremendous gain on hi previous PPV record of 400,000 buys. The event netted over $70 million dollars of domestic television revenue. The fight did contain boxing's biggest and most consistent draw in recent memory, Oscare De La Hoya. According to ESPN the 1.25 million buys broke several records, "It's a whopping total in a tough economy and makes the fight the third biggest-selling non-heavyweight fight in history. It also ties it for ninth overall on the all-time list."

Compare this to the UFC's most profitable event, UFC 91. An event that did 800,000 buys and $4.8 million live gate (the third best live gate in UFC history). The UFC has not confirmed the exact number of PPV buys, but if it did do the reported 800,000 then the show would of brought in approximately $31 million dollars, less then half of what Pacquiao and De La Hoya did. Also remember that HBO did not report their live gate as well.

This is a prime example of the difference between mega-fights in the two industries. Boxing is able to generate larger events but do not put on the consistent annual product the UFC does. It also demonstrates that their is a larger casual fanbase for boxing then MMA that can be tapped into for mega-fights.