The real numbers will be out on Thursday or Friday:
While the official numbers have not yet come in the rumor mill is circulating surrounding pay per view buys for this past weekend’s head to head pay per view battle between boxing and the UFC. Officially there is no battle between the two sports but many enthusiasts were anxious to see what would happen when a major boxing card faced off with a major UFC card.
The UFC has generally done better pay per view numbers than boxing but the two sports have never gone head to head on the same day. Both sports have been cautious not to set major events on the same date but a rib injury to Floyd Mayweather Junior back in June pushed the re-emergence of “Money” to September 19. The same weekend, same day as UFC 103. The clash between the aforementioned Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez was originally scheduled for July 18..
According the rumor mill boxing dominated the UFC nearly as thoroughly as Mayweather dominated Marquez, at least that night.
If reports are accurate Mayweather/Marquez raked in over 1 million buys at nearly $50 while UFC 103 did approximately 400,000 at nearly $45. You do the math. In reality we may never know the final numbers of the UFC broadcast because it is privately owned and has no legal responsibility to publicly disclose its sales unlike HBO pay per view. Still, you sort of get the feeling that White would love the opportunity to take another stab at boxing and what better way to do that than to point that he went head to head with boxing's bad boy Mayweather…and won.
Dana White prior to this past weekend, “No matter what happens on Saturday night, boxing is in trouble.” He continued, “Nobody is asking to see this Marquez fight. They want to see Mayweather/Pacquiao fight.” In retrospect boxing seems to not be in as much trouble as White thought. Still, there is undeniable truth that the world is waiting to see Mayweather/Pacquiao mix it up but a large number of people decided that they wanted to see Mayweather/Marquez as well. Probably more than anybody would have guessed, well, except Mayweather himself. To be fair-minded, Mayweather is no stranger to trash mixed martial arts either.
In my mind this affirms it. Mayweather is a boxing superstar! Maybe he’s the bad boy of boxing. Maybe you tune in hoping he gets beat. Maybe you’re a diehard fan and salivate at boxing in its purist form. Maybe he's the fighter you love to hate. Maybe Mayweather is the B-side to all these record breaking pay per view fights of which (hold your breath) he is the common denominator. Regardless of why we tune, the fact is, we tune in and that is what counts.
The final purchase numbers may also be affected and blurred by the non-traditional purchasing and viewing methods both sports used.
In addition to purchase via pay per view, the Mayweather/Marquez clash was available in movie theatres nationwide. That had not happened since the days of Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, rarely live and never in full HD. Attendees have reported being able to actually see perspiration flying off the fighters as though they were sitting ringside. (How about doing a fight in 3D...freaky!)Boxing’s counterpart, the UFC, got a little fight-techy as well. UFC fans could watch the fight in a traditional pay per view setting or watch it on their iPhones with the purchase of a 99-cent app and a $45 fee. The UFC even took it a step farther when it aired the undercard on standard cable television in hopes of generating more public interest in the pay per view section.
While both sides downplay the importance of the boxing vs. UFC weekend but now that the pay per view numbers are trickling in it will be interesting to see if it stays that way. Truth be
told, boxing isn’t dead and it owes a big high five to the UFC for forcing it to get back on track. No matter which sport won, or which sport did more sales, a lot of people watched a lot of guys fight this weekend. You gotta love that.
