Manny Pacquiao proves stardom once again, hits 400,000 PPV sales in win over Adrien Broner
Manny Pacquiao not only proved he remains relevant as a boxer during a one-sided beatdown of Adrien Broner on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, but he showed he remains one of boxing’s best draws.
Multiple sources have confirmed to Yahoo Sports that the final pay-per-view number for the card will be 400,000, an unqualified success and 25 percent higher than Pacquiao’s last pay-per-view fight. That was in 2016 when he defeated Jessie Vargas at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas and sold around 300,000.
Pacquiao is the second-greatest selling pay-per-view fighter in history, behind only Floyd Mayweather. Their 2015 fight sold a record 4.6 million pay-per-views and generated almost $600 million in gross revenue. Saturday’s bout with Broner, which most experts were predicting to do in the 325,000 to 350,000 range, will come in with roughly $30 million. Pacquiao earned a guaranteed $10 million and should make more from the pay-per-view upside.
It should prove to Mayweather that Pacquiao remains a popular draw and that a rematch would do significant business, despite their advanced ages. Pacquiao turned 40 in December and Mayweather will be 42 next month.
Mayweather met Pacquiao at a night club in Japan in September and they spoke about a fight, but Mayweather hasn’t shown much interest in it since. But seeing Pacquiao’s success against Broner may change his mind.
Broner was appearing in his first pay-per-view, though he was a strong ratings grabber while appearing in fights on Showtime and HBO.
The fight was announced as a sellout at 13,025 because the MGM Grand Garden, which can fit more than 16,000 for boxing, was scaled slightly under capacity. All tickets were sold, promoters said, though not all seats were filled.
It was, though, an unqualified success for the 40-year-old veteran, who is in line for what figures to be a massive bout later this year. A rematch with Mayweather would sell at a minimum two million, while potential bouts against Keith Thurman and the Errol Spence-Mikey Garcia winner would figure to sell at least 400,000 and perhaps more.
Showtime will broadcast the replay on Saturday at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT
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