It appears that Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum may have been a tad bit off on his prediction for the pay-per-view buys of the November 22 showdown between WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and WBO jr. welterweight champion Chris Algieri. Back in October, Arum suggested that the general public might be more familiar with Algieri than they were with former welterweight champion Timothy Bradley. Because of that fact, the 82-year-old was hoping that Pacquiao vs. Algieri would do "between 750,000 and 900,000 buys". According to multiple industry insiders, however, it's looking more and more like the numbers might be 1/3 of Arum's expectations.
Although Top Rank and HBO have been mum on the numbers since the fight first aired nearly two weeks ago, some sources are suggesting that the event did less than 300,000 buys. While that number has yet to be confirmed, the fact that it's taken this long for Arum to comment suggests that the buys were indeed lower than expected, much like they were this time last year when Pacquiao defeated former lightweight champion Brandon Rios. Just like the Algieri bout, Pacquiao vs. Rios took place in Macau, China the weekend before Thanksgiving, and according to Arum, who spoke on the numbers 10 days after the fight, it generated roughly 500,000 pay-per-view buys, though again no official number was released and some industry insiders claim it did less than 400,000 buys.
Again, keep in mind that these numbers are not confirmed. That being said, considering that Chris Algieri was likely no bigger draw than Brandon Rios, it should come as no surprise that the pay-per-view buys were much lower than expected. The good news for Arum, however, is that much like the Rios fight, he likely structured another nice deal with the venue, the Venetian Macao, that likely made up for some of the lost revenue in the pay-per-view buys. It's unclear, however, if that deal actually benefits the fighters and/or the network, HBO, or if it's strictly money that the promoter keeps.