‘Battle of Brisbane’by the numbers

Here’s a review of the numbers that told the story of the “Battle of Brisbane” between Manny Pacquiao and Jeff Horn at the Suncorp Stadium last Sunday.

51,025 – attendance announced for the card that started at 9 in the morning under the sun in the open-air arena. It marked the largest audience for a Pacquiao fight in a stadium, surpassing the crowd of 50,994 that witnessed the Filipino icon’s 12-round win over Joshua Clottey at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in 2010. The biggest gathering for a Pacquiao bout was estimated to be 300,000 for his fifth round demolition of Kazakhstan’s Serik Yeshmagambetov in a makeshift ring at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta Park in 2003.

7,000 – on-ground white plastic chairs set up to augment the capacity of 52,500 in the stands.   Front row seats were sold for the equivalent of about P195,000 each.

52,497 – Suncorp Stadium’s biggest concert turnout for the band Coldplay in 2012. 

159 – countries where the fight was beamed to a global TV audience of at least 500 million.

$30,000 – the purse paid to world heavyweight champion Tommy Burns of Canada to stake his title against Jack Johnson in Sydney in 1908. Johnson, who was paid $1,500, stopped Burns in the 14th of a scheduled 20-round bout before a crowd of 26,000. Some 40,000 fans were perched on rooftops, trees and other vantage points to catch a glimpse of the action outside the Sydney Stadium. It was the first world heavyweight title fight between an African-American and a Caucasian, putting Australia in the boxing history books.

17,000 – visitors from out-of-town, including overseas, who descended on Brisbane to watch the biggest boxing event in Australian history.

90 percent – occupancy rate of Brisbane hotels during the weekend of the fight.

P890,000,000 – the equivalent in Philippine pesos of the value in the boost to Brisbane’s economy as a direct result of the fight.

89 – the age of Horn’s grandfather Ray who was in the stadium to cheer for the man called the Hornet. He wore a tracksuit with a hood to cover his head from the blistering sun in his ringside seat. The grandfather wouldn’t miss the fight for the world despite battling the flu. He is said to be almost blind and nearly deaf.

7 – stitches that Dr. Ben Manion used to sew up Horn’s cut over the right eye in the dressing room. The eye was swollen shut when Horn showed up for his victory party. When urine was extracted from Horn for the mandatory drug test after the fight, Pacquiao’s cutman Miguel Diaz said it was brownish in color, indicating blood. Horn was later brought to the hospital for a checkup that took two hours.

14 – stitches that Dr. Jeffrey Roth used to sew up Pacquiao’s scalp cuts on both sides of his head. The cuts were inflicted by butts. Referee Mark Nelson never reprimanded Horn for butting. According to a source, there were nine stitches on one side of Pacquiao’s head – four interior and five exterior – and five on the other side – two interior and three exterior.

$10 Million – Pacquiao’s guaranteed purse. It could go higher depending on revenues from pay-per-view in Australia and other income streams. Horn’s purse was about $500,000. 

200,000 – pay-per-view subscriptions in Australia for the fight.

95 Million – homes that were provided the live feed of the fight on free TV in the US. It is said to have been the most-watched boxing event on free-to-air TV since the Muhammad Ali-Leon Spinks fight at the Louisiana Superdome in 1978. The Ali-Spinks rematch drew the largest crowd of 63,315 in an indoor stadium for boxing ever.

7 – rounds where the three judges unanimously scored for either Pacquiao or Horn, meaning the other five rounds were up for grabs. The three judges scored it 10-9 for Horn in the first, fourth, sixth, seventh and 12th while they had it 10-9 for Pacquiao in the third and ninth. If Pacquiao won one more round in the scorecards of Chris Flores and Ramon Cerdan, the decision would’ve been a majority draw with the Filipino retaining the crown.

90 – punches that Pacquiao landed more than Horn. Overall, Pacquiao connected 182 blows compared to 92 by Horn. In power shots, Pacquiao had a 50 punch advantage, landing 123 to Horn’s 73.