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Showtime Exec: Social Media Made Mayweather vs. Pacquiao Buy Records Possible

It took nine weeks. It’s hard to conceive now, in retrospect, that in 63 days the biggest fight in boxing history was somehow pieced together and came to a historic conclusion.

But that’s what the numbers bear out: The May 2 Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao mega-fight established a new record for total pay-per-view buys with 4.4 million, according to joint press releases by Showtime and HBO Sports on Tuesday.

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The release also stated that with additional revenue from the live gate at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, international television distribution, sponsorships, closed circuit and merchandise sales, the event is expected to generate in excess of $500 million in gross worldwide receipts.

That would nearly triple the record $150 million in U.S. pay-per-view revenue generated by Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez in 2013.

What’s more is the pay-per-view figure could grow.

“We’ve been pretty happy since the Sunday following the fight,” said Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Showtime Sports. “Getting this news makes us extremely happy. Reaching 4.4-million is more than we originally hoped for. We hoped to do nearly double what the previous record (2.48-million buys in the 2007 Oscar De La Hoya-Mayweather), and we tripled the previous revenue record.

“This event grew beyond something that we saw coming. There is certainly a chance the buys can grow beyond 4.4. We’re dealing with uncharted territory here, and we don’t know. The total number of buys could grow 10 percent over the next two or three months. It’s certainly conceivable. No one has ever done numbers like this before. We’re not sure how to predict this.”

Bob Arum sounded downright happy. Who could blame the Hall of Fame promoter after just hearing the news that Mayweather Jr.-Pacquiao established a new record for total pay-per-view buys?

“Those are just preliminary numbers, because that number will rise considerably,” Arum said. “I don’t know what was being projected going into the fight, but everyone did a good job and it’s a splendid number, and it has made history.

“That 4.4-million will continue to rise in the months ahead. That’s the feedback we’re getting. It won’t exceed 5-million, but I would say a good guess is that it will land around 4.8-million buys. That 4.4-million is a very conservative number. When the real numbers come out, it will really be mindboggling. It won’t go over 5-million. This whole event exceeded my expectations by far. I’m very, very happy with this number.”

Arum felt indications during fight week said the numbers, based on early buys, would be greater than “any number that was ever reached before,” Arum said.

Espinoza credited the power of digital media and connectivity of social media for making it happen. If this fight happened as recent as 10 years ago, there is no way it would have received the hype Mayweather-Pacquiao received through the power of digital and social media.

“To deliver something like this on such a grand stage and it’s a telecast we’re very, very proud of,” Espinoza said. “It’s something that people will look back and be proud of for their entire careers. It was an event that most people only get to work on once in a career, if ever. It’s something will all remember for a long, long time. We did this in nine weeks.

“With digital media, everything has changed. We found a tremendous amount of attention can be gained in a very short time with the correct marketing behind it. We are a far more connected world.”

Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.

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