The much hyped fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao unsurprisingly raked in an incredible amount of money and smashed previous boxing pay-per-view, revenue and gate records.
According to Yahoo! Sports, the official numbers are mind-boggling. The previous record for pay-per-view unit sales was held by the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya. That fight managed to bring in 2.48 million PPV units. By comparison, Mayweather-Pacquiao sold 4.4 million units. As for the former revenue record set by Mayweather’s fight against Canelo Alvarez that generated $150 million, Mayweather-Pacquiao managed to bring in over $400 million. Lastly, the former gate record of $20 million (also set by the Mayweather-Alvarez fight) was dwarfed by the Mayweather-Pacquiao gate total of more $72 million.
Per NSAC, official new all-time #boxing gate record: #MayweatherPacquiao generated $72,198,500 from sale of 16,219 tix. @darrenrovell
— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) May 12, 2015
Forbes estimates that once sponsorships are taken into account, total revenue for the fight could exceed $550 million.
As for the fighters themselves, the two had agreed to a 60-40 split favoring Mayweather. That means that Floyd will likely walk away with about $200 million while Manny will get around $130 million. In addition to record revenue figures, the boxers themselves far exceeded any individual payday that they had previously received in their careers.
It will be a record night of earnings for both fighters. Mayweather’s previous biggest paycheck was $73 million for his fight against Alvarez. Pacquiao earned $30 million for his third fight against Juan Manuel Marquez in 2011.
Not bad for what was essentially a 12 round sparring match between an injured Pacquiao and a clearly dominant Mayweather. Hell, Mayweather may actually be able to make good on his promise to give each of his four kids $50 million for the fight now. So really, Floyd’s kids made out like bandits.
[Forbes] [Yahoo! Sports]
About Ryan Wong