Mayweather-Berto PPV To Land in 550-600K Buy Range

By Jake Donovan

Barring a major spike in data collection, Floyd Mayweather will simply stroll into the sunset rather than go out with a box-office bang.

The highest-grossing athlete in boxing history ended his career on a high note in the ring, which came Saturday evening at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Headlining his sixth consecutive Showtime Pay-Per-View event, Mayweather scored a 12-round decision over Andre Berto to defend his World welterweight crown and further establish his place as the best fighter in the world.

Mayweather didn’t have quite the same impact at the box office, however. Four months after he and Manny Pacquiao collided in the highest-grossing event in boxing history, the September 12 event will figure to land between 550,000-600,000 PPV units sold once all of the numbers are tabulated.

The total will rank as Mayweather’s lowest total since his World welterweight championship winning effort over Carlos Baldomir in Nov. ’06. The bout was his third PPV headliner, and one fight prior to his becoming a box office blockbuster.

It will also serve as the lowest-selling event among the six PPV shows under his record-breaking contract he signed with Showtime in 2013. Mayweather has earned a minimum of $32 million per fight under the deal (including the September 12 event for which Berto earned $4 million), though not a direct guarantee payday from Showtime, such funds instead coming from multiple revenue streams.  

An announced attendance of 13,345 was on hand for the show. The total is well short of a sellout—which at full capacity holds more than 16,000— although event handlers insist the show will produce an eight-figure tally at the live gate.

While many will point to Saturday’s show as a flop in comparison to past Mayweather events, the overall six-fight deal proved to be a resounding success. Showtime brass declined the opportunity to confirm or deny the numbers, but remain pleased with the final results both from Saturday and over the long haul.

“We are happy with the performance of the September 12 pay-per-view event,” Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports told BoxingScene.com. “We witnessed four entertaining fights plus a historic moment as Floyd Mayweather announced his retirement from boxing.  In all, we couldn’t be happier with our partnership with Floyd Mayweather.”  

From an entertainment standpoint, it produced a loaded undercard that included a Fight of the Year candidate – the second time Roman Martinez and Orlando Salido find themselves in the category in as many tries. Their super featherweight title fight rematch proved as thrilling as its predecessor in April, only for it to end in a 12-round split decision draw.

The PPV undercard also saw Badou Jack rack up the first defense of his super middleweight title with a 12-round win over George Groves, as well as Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Oquendo scoring an upset decision win over former two-division champ Jhonny Gonzalez in the telecast opener.

The Showtime “free-view” lead-in saw Vanes Martirosyan score two knockdowns in a well-earned decision win over former super welterweight champion Ishe Smith over 10 entertaining rounds.

To measure how high he has set the bar in the PPV industry, only one other event not involving Mayweather has performed better over the life of the contract; Pacquiao’s 12-round win over Timothy Bradley last April, which at 750,000 buys was more than a 15% decline from their first fight in June ’12. That stretch also includes Pacquiao’s wins over Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri, both of which aired from Macau, China and were deemed PPV flops.

Prior to 2013, Mayweather (49-0, 26KOs) spent the overwhelming majority of his career on HBO and its PPV arm, beginning with his first starring role in his Oct. ’98 stoppage win over the late Genaro Hernandez for his first world title. The night marked the first of 15 first-run appearances by Mayweather on HBO, the last coming in Nov. ‘05 when he stopped Sharmba Mitchell in the 6th round of his welterweight debut.

The win over Mitchell was Mayweather’s first fight after his first PPV headliner, knocking out the late Arturo Gatti in six brutally one-sided rounds in June ’05. He would serve in the main event of nine HBO PPV events in all, the biggest of the lot being his May ’07 decision win over Oscar de la Hoya.

Billed at the time as the best fighter in the world (Mayweather) taking on the sport’s biggest box-office star (de la Hoya), the May ’07 show set industry records for the biggest live gate, the highest-grossing PPV event and most PPV units sold.

Mayweather has since broken each of those records – twice – each coming under his six-fight deal with Showtime.

His Sept. ’13 win over Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez fell just short of surpassing the record for most PPV buys, but with a $20 million live gate and more than $150 million in PPV revenue (in addition to closed circuit sales and sponsorship generated) new industry benchmarks were established.

It also came at a time when Showtime saw a major surge in ratings on its flagship network, with Mayweather and adviser Al Haymon’s influence leaving the network as the benefactor of a mass exodus from cable giant HBO. The showdown with Alvarez came four months after Mayweather’s Showtime PPV debut in a May ’13 decision win over Robert Guerrero, which was scoffed by some for failing to produce eye-popping results right out the gate.

Still, generating more than $60 million in PPV revenue and nearly $10 million at the live gate are hardly numbers that can be classified as failures. For the moment, Mayweather-Guerrero ranks #20 on the list of the top selling gates in the history of live boxing in Nevada.

Mayweather owns the top three spots on the list and five of the first six, with four of the fights having taken place over the life of his Showtime deal. At the top, of course, was his epic May 2 event with Pacquiao, which—at nearly $72.2 million is more than the combined totals of the next four fights on the list, including his wins over Alvarez ($20 million-plus) and de la Hoya ($18.4 million).

A pair of wins over Marcos Maidana in 2014 served as the two highest-selling PPV events of the year, generating a combined total of 1.825 million units sold and more than $127 million in PPV revenue. The first fight—which came in May ‘14—pulled in just north of $15 million at the live gate, while the rematch four months later was just shy of that total at nearly $14.9 million. The two fights rank number five and six, respectively.

Even with a conservative estimate of $38 million in PPV sales for Mayweather-Berto, Showtime ultimately got its money’s worth. His fights under the six-fight contract—all of which have taken place in the span of 28 months—amounted to more than $750 million in PPV revenue and roughly $140 in live gate receipts, not to mention the additional exposure and brand awareness the network received.

“In just 2½ years, across six PPV events, we generated more than 10 million domestic pay per view buys, totaling nearly $800 million in gross revenue,” Espinoza points out. “We set all-time pay-per-view records on two separate occasions, the second of which is not likely to be exceeded in this generation, and we gave fans a wealth of entertaining and compelling shoulder programming. 

“In short, the Mayweather deal has far exceeded our expectations.”

All told, Mayweather’s deal with Showtime redefined the PPV industry—regardless of how it ended.

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