Arum sees big bucks from pay-per-view

MANILA, Philippines – Apart from his guaranteed purse of $12 million, Manny Pacquiao stands to earn a few millions more once the revenues for the huge pay-per-view sales for his blockbuster fight against Ricky Hatton start coming in.

Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, yesterday told The STAR he’s got no definite figure yet, but assured that whatever comes out in the next few days will make Pacquiao “very, very happy.”

The Pacquiao-Hatton showdown was a big hit in the United States, Britain and the rest of the world.

And the PPV sales are expected to breach the one million mark. If it does, it’s the first time for a non-heavyweight fight not featuring Oscar dela Hoya, the ex-pay-per-view king who recently retired, to do so.

Or at the very least, it should come close to a million hits at almost $50 each. The Dela Hoya-Pacquiao fight last year sold 1.25 million hits.

“The pay-per-view numbers are very strong. We don’t know how strong but it’s very strong. I should say it’s very, very strong,” said Arum in an overseas call placed to his office in Las Vegas.

“I cannot make a guess but I’m sure Manny will be very happy about it. I really have no idea yet but the numbers are up there. They’re good numbers,” said Arum.

Once all the PPV sales come in, one-half of the proceeds go to the producers and the cable networks. Then the rest will be divided among the promoters and the boxers based on the fight contract.

Sales of a million PPV hits will amount to at least $50 million, and this should leave Pacquiao with a few more millions in dollars as he laughs his way to the bank.

For fighting Dela Hoya, Pacquiao received 33 pecent of everything and came out of the fight, which he won in eight rounds, with over $10 million, including the PPV share.

Still, Dela Hoya’s fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May of 2007 holds the record in PPV sales -- a record of 2.4 million buys that exceeded the 1.99 of the Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson II.

The Dela Hoya-Mayweather fight sold close to $120 million in PPV hits, and the Golden Boy ended up earning a record $52 million for that fight; Mayweather received $25 million.