In a November showdown with the UFC in Las Vegas, boxing scored a knockout at the gate after the latest numbers from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
UFC 106 last weekend featured Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin before an audience of 10,529 at Mandalay Bay for a $3 million gate. Of that total, however, 3,898 of those tickets were comps, or giveaways (valued at $2.3 million).
By comparison, Manny Pacquiao's 12th-round knockout of Miguel Cotto on Nov. 14 generated an $8.84 million gate with 15,470 tickets sold. No tickets were sold below face value for the bout and just 46 were comps.
Floyd Mayweather's Sept. 18 decision win against Juan Manuel Marquez wasn't quite the same caliber of fight as Pacquiao-Cotto, but it sold almost twice as many tickets at face value than UFC 106 and pulled in a $6.89 million gate.
Both boxing matches were at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Pacquiao's bout scored 1.25 million pay-per-view buys and Mayweather's 1 million, the Nos. 1 and 2 boxing PPV events of the 2009, according to official numbers released by HBO PPV in conjunction with promotional powers Top Rank and Golden Boy.
In a comparison of both sports' biggest shows of the year at the gate, Pacquiao-Cotto still easily outdistances UFC 100 held in July at Mandalay Bay. There were 9,793 paid attendees for $5.1 million gate (second all-time for the organization), with the Brock Lesnar-Frank Mir heavyweight championship rematch headlining a stellar card.
UFC president Dana White has said that event sold 1.5 million on PPV, though the organization is a private company and doesn't release official numbers. There doesn't appear to be any unofficial figures from UFC 106 yet.
UFC 100 drew $312,800 in additional revenue from 6,256 fans who bought closed circuit tickets for the event in Las Vegas and New York.
By comparison, the closed circuit viewing parties for Pacquiao-Cotto in Las Vegas alone brought in $899,100 with more than 24,000 tickets sold.
Source: usatoday.com
Custom Search
No comments:
Post a Comment