Pacquiao's star power can't be denied -- ESPN

By Dan Rafael, ESPN.com

Your weekly random thoughts...

• The growth of Manny Pacquiao into a true mega star is nothing short of remarkable. For those of you who have said (and lots of you have) that the 700,000 pay-per-view buys and $35.3 million he generated for his March 13 fight against Joshua Clottey was a disappointment: You are insane.

And make no mistake about it -- Pacquiao, admittedly with an assist from an exotic venue, the absolutely incredible Cowboys Stadium, which was hosting a fight for the first time, is the reason the fight sold so well. Clottey, who has zero fan base to speak of, had nothing to do with it.

Sure, Clottey is known to those of us who follow boxing closely, but to get 700,000 buys -- not to mention a crowd of almost 51,000 (the third-largest for a fight in the United States in about a half-century) -- you need more than just Fight Freaks tuning in. You need casual fans.

Don't forget these three facts either:

1. The fight achieved the numbers it did even though from announcement to fight night there were barely two months to promote the bout. Most HBO PPV fights are promoted using at least a three-month window.

2. There was no "24/7" series on HBO building up the fight for four weeks like there has been in recent years for bouts involving the sport's biggest stars.

3. Neither participant in the bout was American.

And get this: according to HBO and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, the PPV total will rise, like most do, once all the buys are officially accounted for. This one could increase another 25,000 or more.

You can look up and down the history of boxing pay-per-view and, other than some crazy seven-figure buy fights that Mike Tyson did against similarly unknown opponents such as Peter McNeeley and Bruce Seldon, you would be hard-pressed to find any boxer who has ever done so much business against such an unknown opponent, and that includes Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Evander Holyfield and other stars who have thrived on pay-per-view.

Even the great Roy Jones never came close to 700,000 buys for one of his PPV fights, even when he fought significant fights against name opponents.

Let's put what Pacquiao did into even greater perspective: He generated double the buys that Mayweather did for his fights with Zab Judah (375,000) and Carlos Baldomir (325,000) combined.

• For those who have asked, yes, I did make my long-awaited pilgrimage to Southfork Ranch, where my all-time favorite television show, "Dallas," was filmed for so many years. On the day of the fight, after the morning press conference to announce Kelly Pavlik-Sergio Martinez but before I had to be at the stadium for an ESPNEWS appearance, a boxing friend of mine (who I won't mention for fear of embarrassing him) and I drove out to the ranch, which was about a half hour from our hotel. I had a blast. It's something I have always wanted to do. Looked around the grounds and the house. Took a bunch of pictures -- by the famous pool, by the main gate, on the terrace overlooking the pool, in J.R. Ewing's bedroom, on the front lawn in front of the house, etc. And I bought about $25 worth of junk at the gift shop (coffee mug, refrigerator magnet, some post cards and a glossy program). Much to much shock, while I was deciding on which mug to buy, a guy came over to me and asked to take a photo with me. Turns out it was, as he called himself, Walter The Filipino Fight Freak. He's a regular in my Friday chats and he and friends were visiting the ranch too before attending the fight to cheer on Pacquiao. I knew I couldn't be the only boxing/"Dallas" fan in the world.

• I thought the wave that the fans inside Cowboys Stadium did during the Humberto Soto-David Diaz fight was more interesting than horrible undercard.

• Vitali Klitschko is going to defend his heavyweight belt against Albert Sosnowski on May 29. If that doesn't tell you how bad the crop of contenders are in the heavyweight division, I don't know what will. Sosnoswki is a woeful challenger. I know times are tough in the division, but please. This is the same Sosnowski who lost a shutout decision to journeyman Zuri Lawrence.

• Do you think promoter Dan Goossen is sick to death yet of Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko? They've knocked out all three of his top heavyweights. Wladimir drilled Tony Thompson and, most recently, Eddie Chambers last week. Vitali stopped Cristobal Arreola last fall. None of the bouts were even remotely competitive.

• How about a nice, warm welcome for the newest star pupil at the Winky Wright School of Boxing Business? Let's give it up for Matt Godfrey!

• I was dismayed when I read a recent article in the Detroit News, which reported that Thomas Hearns, who made more than $40 million in his career, was facing foreclosure on his home and owed nearly $1 million in unpaid taxes and mortgage payments. Why is that most fighters are so bad at handling their hard-earned money? In a related note, here's a friendly reminder for Mayweather and all other fighters: April 15, tax day, is coming quickly.

• So the organizers of the Holyfield-Francois Botha heavyweight bout are putting it on at the cavernous Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. OMG! I could probably put the fight on in my backyard and still have room to spare.

• I love Randall Bailey. Dude has one of the greatest right hands ever and can knock anyone dead with it at any time. Just ask Jackson Bonsu.

• Who else is psyched that boxing returns to Telefutura next month? Thanks to Richard Schaefer and De La Hoya of Golden Boy for making it happen.

• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has generally done a nice job covering its hometown fighters, Devon Alexander and Cory Spinks, in recent years. But the paper blew it big time on Alexander's junior welterweight unification fight with Juan Urango earlier this month. Not only did the newspaper not staff the fight, but it didn't even hire a stringer to cover the bout, instead relying solely on wire copy. That is a disgrace. And when I went to the paper's Web site to see what coverage it did have, even the wire story was buried. Shame, shame, shame. And newspapers wonder why they're dying?

• Have to give my man Alex "Yanksalex" Dombroff a shout out for the clutch 4 a.m. ride to the Hartford airport after Alexander-Urango. We didn't get to make the Frappuccino stop like last time, but his goofy buddy Louis at least provided comic relief and kept me awake.

• Congratulations to all the folks at HBO Sports, which racked up 21 Sports Emmy nominations, including eight for boxing-related programming -- the "Assault in the Ring" documentary and three different editions of "24/7." The Sports Emmys will be handed out April 26 in New York.

• Hector Camacho Sr. was supposed to fight Allan Vester in Denmark on Friday in a middleweight fight. Not that I am glad that Vester suffered a back injury, but I am thankful the horror show was called off.

• When flyweight titlist Koki Kameda of Japan meets Thailand's Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, a former titleholder, on Saturday in Tokyo it will be for the vacant Ring magazine title. I like that.

• Belated condolences to promoter Gary Shaw, whose father, Edward Shaw, died recently at age 92.

• One quick personal note: Happy anniversary to my awesome wife, Jenn. Six years on Saturday and she won't even be upset in the least when I want to watch the HBO and Showtime fights that night.

• DVD pick of the week: This is obviously a repeat selection, but what can I tell you? I love this fight and this month happens to be the 20th anniversary of the all-time classic. It was March 17, 1990, at the Las Vegas Hilton. That's when Meldrick Taylor and Julio Cesar Chavez met for the first time. There were high expectations for the junior welterweight unification fight, but it exceeded them. They waged a memorable action fight that had perhaps the most controversial ending in boxing history. Although Taylor was clearly winning, Chavez was doing damage. Finally, in the 12th round, Chavez broke through and knocked him down. Although Taylor made it to his feet, referee Richard Steele stopped the fight with just two seconds left, allowing Chavez to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Discussion of his stoppage can still fuel a raging debate to this day. I get asked all the time for my opinion of the stoppage. I thought Steele was wrong and that Taylor should have been allowed to continue and claim the win he was robbed of.

Source: espn.go.com