The possibility of Arum surpassing the revenue generated by Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) which promoted the the Alvarez-Smith fight in collaboration with HBO pay-per-view, surfaced when the Pacquiao-Vargas promoter added three more world title fights in the main supporting card.
All the three fights in the main card feature Mexican boxers which include Jessie Vargas, Oscar Valdez and Jessie Magdaleno. The fourth title fight is for the vacant WBO Flyweight title to be contested by China’s Zou Shiming and Prasitsak Papoem of Thailand.
Headlining the Nov. 5 weekend card at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada is eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, who is aiming to regain his old WBO welterweight title against Jessie Vargas.
Two other title fights have been incorporated by Arum in the main card which include the very popular WBO super bantamweight titlist Nonito Donaire, who is facing mandatory challenger Jessie Magdaleno and for the third title fight, Oscar Valdez will stake his WBO featherweight title against Japanese challenger Hiroshige Osawa.
A good number of the expected PPV sales will come from Mexican-American fans who are rooting for the three Mexican fighters in the fight card. But the bulk of PPV sales will will come from the usual supporters of Pacquiao and Donaire who are both very popular in the U.S. as well as in Mexico.
If Pacquiao and Donaire could generate at least 250,000 buys and the combined sales of at least 100,000 for Vargas and the two other Mexicans in the card, total estimated PPV buys will be 350,000 or 50,000 more than the PPV buys generated by GBP from the Alvarez-Smith fight.
These are conservative figures considering that Pacquiao’s last PPV buys from the third Bradley fight last April was reported to have reached around 400,000.
While De la Hoya is happy with 300,000 PPV buys for the Canelo-Smith fight, Arum would be glad to see his Nov. 5 card generate the same number or even a bit lower because this time he won’t have to share the revenue with HBO.
“We’re going to wind up doing close to 300,000 homes, which is great when you combine that with almost 52,000 fans we had in the crowd,” De La Hoya said. “We’re very happy, extremely happy with the numbers,” he added.
Pacquiao is expected to help in promoting the Nov. 5 card when he moves to the U.S. on Oct. 22 for the final phase of his training at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.
