PPV Or Not???

Earlier today I was talking with one of my boxing buddies about how GoldenBoy has made a great effort to put some quality boxing on regular HBO instead of PPV. One of the things we like to do is estimate how well we think a PPV will do and if it was worth the purchase. For instance we both agreed Jones Jr.-Trinidad fight did better than we anticipated. However we look at the Taylor-Pavlik rematch and think although it should be a great fight it is not PPV worthy. So what makes a fight PPV worthy becomes the question. I mean you look at Oscar, Mike Tyson(when he fought), Fernando Vargas and you think why are/were they always on PPV. Quite simple they have huge fan bases that follow their every fight whether they win or lose. We spoke about how Corrales-Castillo I which could very well be one of the greatest fights of all time did wonderful on Showtime. So Showtime figured they had a goldmine for the rematch and decided to put it on PPV. Ouch it did not do very well on PPV and I never heard the numbers of how it did on PPV. So for their third fight, which did not happen due to Castillo missing weight, it was going to be on regular Showtime. So we looked at Taylor-Pavlik I which was a great fight but the fan bases these gentleman have is not strong enough yet to warrant PPV. In my opinion the rematch should be another great fight on HBO and not PPV. Sure their first fight was great and was way better than a certain fight that 2.4 million paid $54.95 for but business is business. Although I believe Taylor-Pavlik II will be a great fight and more than likely worth my $49.95 I just do not see it doing big numbers on PPV. At this time the household names that truly generate PPV sales in no particular order are as follows.

1. Oscar De La Hoya
2. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
3. Roy Jones Jr.
4. Felix Trinidad
5. Manny Pacquiao
6. Miguel Cotto
7. Bernard Hopkins (But he did not get his first headline PPV until 2004 against Oscar)
8. Sugar Shane Mosley

However even Bernard Hopkins and Sugar Shane Mosley have to have a great opponent to even be on PPV because they do not have the huge followings like the other fighters. For instance when Mosley fought Vargas(who has a huge fan base) it was on PPV but when he fought Luis Collazo it was just on HBO. The next fight after Collazo for Mosley was against Cotto which was on PPV and did pretty good numbers. The reason for that is because Mosley's name alone does not draw huge PPV numbers. The same goes for Bernard Hopkins his fights with Tarver and Winky did okay, but it was not until he fought Oscar that he got to be in the main event on PPV. Oscar on the other hand can fight just about anyone on PPV and draw over 500,000 buys. So I truly hope in the near future we can continue to get more of the great fights and fighters to fight on our regular boxing channels rather than PPV. It is better for the fans, after all we are the ones who deserve to be happy.