Arum elated over Manny-Chris PPV hits

MANILA, Philippines - It’s not what Bob Arum had expected but the pay-per-view numbers of Manny Pacquiao’s recent fight against Chris Algieri is just enough to put a smile on his face.

According to SI.com, the fight that took place at the packed Cotai Arena of the Venetian Hotel in Macau last Nov. 22 just went over 400,000 in PPV sales.

Pacquiao dominated the fight, sending Algieri, who was previously undefeated, to the canvas six times en route to a lopsided decision.

Algieri went down once in the second round then twice in each of the sixth and ninth rounds and once more in the 10th.

“It’s good for a fight that takes place in Macau,” Arum told Chris Mannix of SI.com, referring to the fight that took place at high noon in Macau, which is primetime in the United States.

“If it (fight) takes place out of the US, that’s an automatic 40-50 percent reduction,” Arum added.

It was the second time Pacquiao staged a fight in Macau, next to the one he had with Brandon Rios also in November of 2013.

The Pacquiao-Rios showdown, the first for the Filipino superstar following back-to-back losses to Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez, did 475,000 pay-per-view hits.

When Pacquiao faced Bradley in a rematch last April in Las Vegas, they sold around 800,000 pay-per-view hits.

Still, Arum said the latest Pacquiao show did well because of the Chinese market. He said the fight was shown in mainland China on free TV and catered to over 300 million viewers.

“The Chinese viewers are bigger than the entire United States population,” said Arum.

Pacquiao himself said he will continue fighting in Macau because it’s closer to Filipinos who want to watch him and because of lower taxes compared to the US.

“People say, ‘Well why are you doing it?’ It’s because of the tremendous amount that we make in China,” Arum also told SI.com.