"Well, you know, I think we did quite well going back last November. We did 475,000 buys for the Brandon Rios fight. For a fight that took place outside of the country, I thought that was a great number," stated Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum, who talked about his expectations for the pay-per-view buys of the upcoming November 22 showdown between WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and WBO jr. welterweight champion Chris Algieri. According to Arum, the publicity that Algieri has received during the build-up for the fight is a good indication that they could potentially double the numbers that Pacquiao did last November when he faced Brandon Rios in the same venue.
"Now, with Chris Algieri getting the type of publicity that he is getting, which we never had before; for example, I don't remember ever, I mean, I'm sure in the Ali days it was different, but I don't remember recently ever a fight getting an article in The New Yorker magazine the way this one has in this week's New Yorker. And for example, if you ask people who watch Fox Business News, where Algieri has been on numerous occasions, which fighter may do better, Chris Algieri or say Tim Bradley, they would say Chris Algieri," Arum explained during a recent conference call to promote the bout. "So while it's true that among fight fans Algieri may not be as well known as an established guy say as Tim Bradley, among the general public, more of the public know now Algieri than they do most fighters, and therefore I think we're going to do a number akin to what we did in a Tim Bradley fight, which is anywhere between 750,000 and 900,000 buys."
[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]