Pacquiao pay-per-view way below target

MANILA, Philippines - It seems very unlikely that the pay-per-view sales for the recent Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight at the Cowboys Stadium in Texas will come close to the average PPV numbers the Filipino icon has posted in his last three fights.

Top Rank chief Bob Arum has come up with numbers to expect from the recent fight, and they’re way below the 1.25 million PPV buys for Pacquiao’s battle with Oscar dela Hoya and Miguel Cotto, and the 850,000 hits with Ricky Hatton.

“All we have is the satellite numbers and they are very strong,” Arum told ESPN’s Dan Rafael, five days after Pacquiao, the pound-for-pound champion, turned Clottey’s body into a punching bag and ran away with a unanimous decision.

Arum said while nothing is definite yet, the numbers for the March 13 fight should exceed 650,000.

“We’re not giving out any numbers yet because we have very little (information) from the cable systems, which you need. The cable numbers are very fragmented, so it could be a few days. But the number that you can’t go any lower than is 650,000 for the fight.

“That is the worst it would do, but it should be a lot higher,” said Arum.

Pacquiao was guaranteed $12 million for the fight, and should get a couple millions more from his PPV shares. If the numbers get stuck at 650,000, it will translate to around $32.5 million from which the boxers get a share.

Clottey was given $1.2 million for taking on the sport’s hottest figure, and he seemed so content that he gave up his chances of pulling off a victory. For 12 rounds, he was so busy defending and just trying to stay on his feet.

A crowd of 50,994 came to watch the fight at the $1.2 billion stadium.

Pacquiao has averaged a little over a million PPV buys in his fights with Dela Hoya, Hatton and Cotto when a few years ago he was so happy doing around 350,000 for his bouts with Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera or Juan Manuel Marquez.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao’s business adviser, Eric Pineda, yesterday said the 31-year-old Pinoy champion is scheduled to arrive in Manila on Monday, a day ahead of the original plan.

Pacquiao was scheduled to hold a concert in Hawaii this Sunday, but it was called off due to poor ticket sales. Instead, Pacquiao and his wife, Jinkee, will push their departure date to Saturday (LA time).

Pineda said from the airport he will be taken straight to his hotel for a brief rest. Then he attends his traditional Thanksgiving Mass at the Quiapo Church and will probably proceed to the GMA-7 headquarters.

Pacquiao has skipped his routine visit to the DENR headquarters in Quezon City, and according to Pineda, the boxer has yet to receive any word or any invitation for him to drop by at Malacañang for an audience with the President.

Pacquiao flies to his hometown in Sarangani on Tuesday to get ready for his campaign for the May 10 elections.