Millionaire Pacquiao earns another $25M
Hollywood (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) - Already a multi-millionaire, Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao has at least another US$25 million coming for battering Mexican Antonio Margarito into submission in Texas last weekend.
That is before the taxman lops off a big chunk of it. But for all intents and purposes, boxing's pound-for-pound king no longer needs to work for the rest of his life, unless he overindulges and blows it all away.
For his 12-round, 36-minute work in the ring with Margarito, Pacquiao earned an estimated $25 million, equivalent to 1.1 billion pesos. This translates to $694,000 or 30.5 million pesos per minute.
All in all, Margarito landed 135 power punches during the bout - which meant that for every one of those punches Pacquiao took, the Filipino idol earned $135,000 - or 8 million pesos.
What the Pacquiao-Margarito fight failed to generate at the gates it drew from pay-per-view (PPV).
Figures show the Pacquiao fight stands to be one of the most watched ever in boxing history: as many as 1.5 million PPV hits.
"Numbers say we're going to hit 1.4 to 1.5 million," Pacquiao's Canadian adviser Mike Koncz told Manila-based sportswriters on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila). "From all indications and the early tracking, we can even get 1.5 million."
If the bruising fight indeed hit 1.5 million PPV buys, it would eclipse the 1.4 million PPV buys posted by the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Shane Mosley bout in May and confirm Pacquiao's status as PPV's most bankable boxer at present.
Pay-per-view share
With each buy costing $54.95, Pacquiao-Margarito PPV hits of 1.5-million translate to $82 million.
From total PPV sales, Pacquiao stands to get about 12.5 percent of the projected $82-million revenue, or $10 million. This is on top of his guaranteed purse of $15 million for the fight that earned him an unprecedented eighth world title in as many weight classes.
According to Mike Taffet, HBO senior vice president for sports, Pacquiao's last four fights in the United States averaged one million PPV hits, with his bout against Oscar De La Hoya in 2008 netting 1.25 million PPV sales and his showdown with Miguel Cotto posting 1.2 million hits.
Pacquiao's second-round knockout of Briton Ricky Hatton chalked up 900,000 buys while Pacquiao's 12-round domination of Ghanaian Joshua Clottey posted 750,000 hits.
$67M in four fights
A check of previous Inquirer reports showed Pacquiao earned $20 million from his clash with De La Hoya in December 2008, and $15 million from his May 2009 fight with Ricky Hatton of the United Kingdom.
Pacquiao got $17 million from his bout with Miguel Cotto in November 2009 and earned another $15 million when he tangled with Clottey in March 2010.
Those four fights brought him $67 million altogether. That does not include the estimated $25 million he earned from his fight with Margarito.
Ranged against those amounts, Pacquiao's gross pay as a congressman about 75,000 pesos ($1,715) a month, according to lawmakers - would seem like only loose coins for him. While he is also entitled to an annual country wide development fund of 70 million ($1.6 million), that money is intended for projects in his congressional district.
Fortune in PPV
Though a big crowd of 41,734 fans trooped to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday, it did not surpass the 50,994 attendance when Pacquiao fought Clottey in the same venue in March.
Koncz, however, explained that gate sales is the least source of revenue in a fight promotion, with the PPV buys still the main source of revenue.
Pacquiao, he confirmed, could earn $10 million from his PPV shares.
There were many factors that boosted PPV sales for Pacquiao-Margarito, Koncz said.
"The people wanted to see how Manny was going to handle boxing and, being a congressman at the same time, his training in the Philippines raised a lot of suspicion on his readiness, and the style of both fighters," he said.
PPV king
Koncz said that economics, with the United States still in a slump, also was a major factor as most people preferred to watch the fight in groups at home rather than see it live and pay for tickets that went as high as $700.
De La Hoya, whom Pacquiao sent into retirement with an eighth round TKO in their showdown, is regarded as the PPV king with his bout against Mayweather Jr. chalking a record 2.5 million buys.
Veteran promoter Bob Arum has seen it all in a career spanning almost half a century and he unwaveringly believes Pacquiao has become the best fighter of all time.
Arum has worked with giants of the ring such as Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran but none of them, in his opinion, ever dominated with both fists in the manner of the diminutive Filipino southpaw.
Reposted From ANN (Asian News Network)
