Floyd Mayweather’s 49th, and perhaps final, fight will go down as his worst in the past decade, at least in terms of pay-per-view units sold.
Mayweather’s unanimous decision over Andre Berto on Saturday generated almost 550,000 pay-per-view buys, sources told the Los Angeles Times. Yahoo Sports reported the number could be as low as 400,000 units.
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Either way, the fight drew the smallest views since Mayweather sold 325,000 units for his HBO pay-per-view fight against Carlos Baldomir in 2006.
Showtime Sports vice president Stephen Espinoza said his company, which broadcast the fight, will not reveal the final numbers. Showtime charged $64.95 for standard-definition sets, $74.95 for high-definition sets.
“We’re happy with the event as a whole,” Espinoza told the Times. “We had four entertaining fights (on Saturday’s card), we saw the historic moment of Floyd’s retirement. It may not have been the biggest Mayweather event ever, but in my view, anything we did coming off the massive May 2 event (Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao) was going to feel like a bit of a letdown.”
Mayweather-Pacquiao sold a record 4.6 million pay-per-view units and generated a record of more than $400 million in pay-per-view revenue. Mayweather needed only the Berto fight to fulfill his Showtime contract.
