Pay cut, low PPV sales for Pacman

MANILA, Philippines — While no official announcement has been made, pay-per-view numbers for the action-packed encounter between Manny Pacquiao and Yordenis Ugas last week seemed to be heading south.

According to award-winning boxing scribe Kevin Iole, the 12-round showdown witnessed by a live audience of 17,438 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas drew 250,000 PPV buys.

If accurate or at least close to being accurate, it will only be slightly better than Pacquiao’s 2016 match against Jessie Vargas in Las Vegas, which reportedly sold 215,000 buys.

Pacquiao signed for a guaranteed purse of $4 million against Vargas.

But a source from within the team said Pacquiao’s latest fight purse took a cut after Errol Spence Jr., the WBC and IBF welterweight champion, pulled out 11 days prior to the fight due to a retinal tear in his left eye.

“Nabawasan when the opponent changed. Iba ang drawing power ni Spence compared to Ugas so nabawasan ang purse,” he said of the fight where Ugas won a unanimous decision.

Reports said the 42-year-old senator was guaranteed $5 million for a Spence fight. How much was deducted remained undisclosed.

Pacquiao, who said he is open to a rematch with Ugas, is one of the biggest PPV attractions in boxing history with over 20 million buys since 2005 when he faced Erik Morales in the first of three memorable fights.

His 2015 clash with Floyd Mayweather Jr. still stands as the highest PPV show ever with 4.6 million buys for a mouth-watering revenue of $410 million.

The Ugas bout was Pacquiao’s first after a 25-month layoff and was advertised as perhaps his last. The WBA (super) welterweight title fight carried a PPV price tag of $75 per household.

The simple fact that Ugas, a 35-year-old Cuban who practically has no fan base in the United States, was a last-minute replacement for the more attractive Spence told heavily on the PPV sales.

Atty. Tom Falgui, who is Pacquiao’s legal counsel, said they haven’t received official word on the PPV numbers but are waiting for good numbers with limited expectations amid the pandemic.

“It should come out very soon,” he told The STAR.