Pacquiao-Morales III earns $17.5 M in PPV

Manny Pacquiao stands to get another huge windfall aside from his guaranteed $3 million cash purse as HBO Sports reported yesterday that the Pacquiao-Morales Grand Finale has become the highest grossing lighter weight fight in pay-per-view (PPV) history.

According to the website fightnews.com, HBO Sports announced the Pacquiao-Morales III generated 350,000 buys and $17.5 million of PPV revenue.

Pacquiao could earn a cut of around $2 million which he won’t need to share with anyone.

With the strong performance of the third and deciding fight, the Pacquiao-Morales trilogy generated 1,060,000 buys and $49.4 million in PPV revenue.

With its calendar for the year close, HBOPPV reported a total of 3.7 million buys and $177 million in PPV revenue, making it the second-biggest year since its inception in 1991.

It is second only to 1999 when four million buys were generated in a year highlighted by the De La Hoya-Trinidad, De La Hoya-Quartey, and Holyfield-Lewis I and II showdown.

Earlier, Top Rank Promotions boss Bob Arum announced an attendance of 18,276 for the Grand Finale which Pacquiao won via a third-round stoppage of Morales.

The attendance was the third largest for a boxing match in Southern Nevada, according to Jeff Haney of the Las Vegas Sun. The second biggest crowd ever showed up for the 1992 bout between Julio Cesar Chavez and Hector Camacho at the same venue.

The record of about 30,000 was set in 1982 when Larry Holmes stopped Gerry Cooney in a heavyweight contest at Ceasar’s Palace.

"We’re very pleased with the performance of Pacquiao-Morales III. It was a very exciting fight for boxing fans, was the highest-grossing fight we’ve ever had in the lighter weight classes, and concluded a memorable trilogy in which over 1 million buys and nearly $50 million of PPV revenue was generated by two fighters weighing a combined 260 pounds," said HBOPPV’s Mark Taffet.

"Boxing fans showed great support of the sport in 2006, and we are looking forward to another exciting year in 2007," Taffet added. — Nelson Beltran