Floyd Mayweather has reportedly bombed at the Pay Per View box office for the first time in his long and illustrious career.
The “Money” man returned to the ring on Sunday night for an exhibition against a YouTuber novice at Miami Dolphins Stadium.
Before Mayweather pushed the fight to June, the original information for a February 20 event harbored ambitious hopes of beating the 4.6m Manny Pacquiao PPV record.
In conjunction with then-broadcasters Fanmio, the Mayweather Promotions statement read: ‘[all sides] confirmed the match-up that is expected to shatter pay-per-view records.’
“The highly controversial encounter will pit ‘two of the world’s most renowned and popular personalities together in the ring. It’s a must-see event for sports and entertainment fans alike.”
Despite weeks of planning, the fight got postponed. Rumors at the time speculated that a lack of interest was to blame.
Mayweather then moved the event to Showtime Pay Per View. The place is a tried and test platform where Floyd has regularly sold over one million purchases.
For his clashes against Pacquiao and Conor McGregor, Mayweather sold 4.6 and 4.4m, respectively. Unbelievable benchmarks in their own right.
Therefore, the expectations were undoubtedly high despite the low tone of the opponent.
FLOYD MAYWEATHER PPV NUMBERS
Now, just two days on from the no-decision bout that failed to ignite real boxing fans’ interest, sites are reporting drab sales of between 600,000 and 650,000 for Floyd Mayweather.
Online streaming sales are yet to be added to the total, although these are unheard of numbers for “TBE.”
Synonymous with millions of sales and billions of dollars, this will be a massive shock for all involved – if true.
On the upside, this may end this kind of event, which was a novelty at best. Pitting a boxer against a non-sportsman was a bad idea in the first place.
Any kind of combat sports competitor would at least be bearable. But lining the pockets of a glorified gamer and video goofball presenter is an insult to our fair sport.
If Mayweather managed to negotiate a guaranteed $100 million purse, which is usual with Showtime, that would certainly be good business considering the outcome.
Showtime, for their part, may now be counting the cost of getting involved in such a polarizing event.
On the whole, it’s a sad end to Mayweather’s career.
