PACQUIAO VS. BRADLEY III: THE PPV RATIONALE
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 02 Jan 2016
It's Timothy Bradley, the reigning WBO welterweight champion, for the third time against Manny Pacquiao. The main reason is Bradley could give more pay-per-view buys than Amir Khan or WBO junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford.
While Pacquiao is rated no. 7 by The Ring pound-for-pound, the longest fighter to be listed in the top 10 for more than twelve years, Bradley is ranked no. 10. Crawford is at No. 6, a notch higher than Pacquiao.
"What HBO said was how Amir Khan didn?t resonate with them at all,? Arum was quoted by the Las Vegas Review Journal. ?Yeah, he would do some pay-per-view business in England, but they didn?t think he was an attraction in the United States.?
Arum said all of the options were presented to Pacquiao including the recommendations of the stakeholders and the final pick was Bradley. The Top Rank boss thought the trilogy could generate more audience interests than Khan or Crawford.
"We all gave Pacquiao an input," Arum continued. "From the cable companies, the satellite providers, MGM, it was about who is the strongest opponent from a marketable standpoint, and we outlined everything for him and we were down to three choices and Pacquiao thought Bradley was the one that made the most sense."
Arum's analysis was that the frustrations of the viewers on the ballyhooed Fight of the Century with Floyd Mayweather could affect the sales of the trilogy with Bradley. "Of course, I understand the reaction to the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is going to impact us. Clearly, yes. There is no question about that," Arum explained to Yahoo Sports.
"Will we do the same numbers for the first two Bradley fights? Probably not. We're going to try to come as close as we can, and hopefully exceed it, but I understand what we're up against. I've run my numbers and I have done my math. I'm not out here with my head up my ass."
"Crawford doesn?t have a large fan base outside of Nebraska, his home state," Chris Wiliams of Boxing News 24 declared. He estimated a Pacquiao-Crawford fight could bring a maximum of 400,000 PPV buys.
It was projected to be of the same level as the fight with Chris Algieri or Brandon Rios. Crawford is only know in his home-state Nebraska and among the loyal boxing fans.
The first Pacquiao-Bradley fight attracted 890,000 pay-per-view purchases. The second fight drew around 800,000 PPV buys according to ESPN's report. Other sources estimated it to be between 775,000 and 800,000 PPV buys.
Pacquiao fans criticized that the fighting solon has nothing to prove himself against the American, but Arum expounded that Bradley has improved significantly since hiring new trainer Teddy Atlas for his impressive win over Rios by knockout.
?This is a different Bradley because his style is completely different,? Arum told AFP. ?Teddy Atlas has turned him into a completely different fighter. The question is, can Manny beat this Bradley.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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