Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

Although he lost to Manny Pacquiao on their historic fight on December 6, Oscar De La Hoya’s box office appeal helped to draw 1.25 million pay-per-view buys, according to Multichannel News. "Oscar De La Hoya’s box office appeal was on full display, even if his boxing skills weren’t," Multichannel News reported on Wednesday, Dec. 10.

HBO PPV’s Dec. 6 De la Hoya-Manny Pacquiao fight, in which the lightweight champion battered the "Golden Boy" into submission in the 8th round, made it the first PPV boxing event in 2008 to top the 1 million mark.

The fight, which generated $70 million in PPV revenue, is only the fourth nonheavyweight event to reach 1 million buys—all four featuring De la Hoya. The fight made a pile of money, as reported by Washington Times on Wednesday, Dec. 10.

Topping the list is the 2006 De la Hoya-Floyd Mayweather fight, which drew 2.4 million buys, followed by the 1999 De la Hoya-Felix Trinidad, the 2008 De la Hoya-Pacquiao fight at 1.25 million buys, and the 2004 De la Hoya-Bernard Hopkins bout at 1 million buys. The Pacquiao-De la Hoya fight, according to Home Box Office, had 1.25 million PPV buys, at the high asking price of $54.95 each (more for the high-definition version). The way it works is the cable operators get half of that, and the remaining $35 million is to be divided up between everyone who has a piece of the fight.

"I hope the talk about Mayweather ending his bogus retirement and coming out to fight Pacquiao is true," said Thom Loverro, a sportscaster of ESPN. "That is a fight that has some high-end promotional and credibility buzz. However, it is likely that Pacquiao may take a fight first against Ricky Hatton, who should easily dispose of, and make a lot of money in the process—though nowhere near the money he made with De la Hoya," Loverro said in his blog.

HBO makes the distinction between heavyweight and non-heavyweight fights, because traditionally heavyweights bring in the most money. "That’s a quaint notion now, because I can’t see under any conditions any heavyweight fight on the horizon that would come close to bring in 1 million suckers," Loverro opined.

"De la Hoya-Pacquiao definitely exceeded our expectations," Mark Taffet, senior vice president of sports operations for HBO. "We hoped that fight would hit the 1 million buy mark, which is the barometer for mega fights in the sport, but we were uncertain given the state of the economy. We were really pleased that boxing fans everywhere showed tremendous support for the fight."

Taffet wouldn’t speculate on De la Hoya’s future but said Pacquiao—whose previous PPV fights have generated in the range of 300,000 to 400,000 buys—has the opportunity to become a major PPV draw. "Pacquiao is now a breakthrough star with a number of big fights on the horizon," Taffet said, although he would not reveal any potential opponents.

( www.asianjournal.com )

( Published on December 12, 2008 in Asian Journal New York p. A2 )