Floyd Mayweather holds the top two Pay Per View purchase records of all time, which cannot be denied. However, Mayweather’s benchmark saw an attempt to swell the second-placed effort way above the Manny Pacquiao record vetoed.
World Boxing News understands that previous plans in the aftermath of the 2017 clash to elevate Mayweather’s final professional fight to 5.1m worldwide buys fell apart.
Mayweather defeated McGregor in August 2017 in the first boxing vs MMA collision to break down barriers in the sport, as WBN reported then and since. The event eventually fell short of Mayweather’s event with Pacquiao two years earlier. Adding worldwide sales keeps the two Showtime/HBO PPVs even further apart.
The McGregor fight sold 4.3m in the United States but 5.1m sales worldwide. However, the Pacquiao clash beat that on both fronts. “May Pac” brought in 4.4m US households and an astonishing 5.7m plus from across the planet, making it the most successful event ever.
But later, there are calls to add illegal streams to the Las Vegas Mayweather vs McGregor Showtime headliner, with some even going so far as to update official records.
WBN believes those attempts were eventually thwarted, but only after several tries. Mayweather vs McGregor will have to make do with the original number.
Research into the online pirating of “May Mac” shows over three million people illegally watched the fight. This scenario takes the entire sales to around 8.1m – if counted. However, this won’t be the case for past events but could happen with future Pay Per Views.
Streaming through boxes, firesticks, and social media channels like Twitter and Twitch has gone through the roof lately. Not to mention those who watch the fight and report the action on YouTube. It leaves a bad taste in the mouths of both Mayweather and McGregor, but not how distasteful it might have been if the latter accepted Floyd’s first offer.
When negotiating in the early stages, the man formerly known as “Pretty Boy” offered McGregor only a flat fee to fight him. The Irishman held out and made over $100 million more than his original purse.
At the time, Money Mayweather told ESPN’s First Take what he had put on the table.
“Conor McGregor keeps telling everybody he wants the fight. Let’s make it happen,” the former unified WBA and WBC super welterweight ruler said. “We tried to make the McGregor fight. My number was a guaranteed $ 100 million. We offered him $15m.
“We’re the A-side. I don’t know how much he has made, but I’m pretty sure he hasn’t made $2m in an MMA bout. We can talk about splitting the PPV, but we are on the A-side. How can a guy talk about $20m or $30m if he’s not made eight or nine? Is the fight going to happen? We’re working on it,” he added.
McGregor turned down the $15 million in favor of a $30 million guarantee. His split of those four million PPV sales added another nine zeros. Since then, McGregor has never looked like the same fighter and seems content with his empire, legacy, and roles in Hollywood movies.
Questions of what the purses could have been for many events with illegal streaming is a problem that isn’t going away anytime soon.
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