Pac-Man v Morales III delivers numbers

The memorable thrill-ogy between super-featherweight warriors Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales climaxed with over 350,000 pay-per-view buys generating over £17.5 million in revenue, HBO has announced.

Add the November 18 figures generated by Pac-Man's brutal three-round blast out of Mexican icon Morales to the first two epics, which took place in January 2006 and March 2005, and the rivalry has engendered over 1million PPV buys and an astonishing $49.5million in revenue.

Even though 10,000 less homes bought the third fight compared to the second, a $5 hike in price to $49.95 ensured that Pacquiao v Morales III was the highest grossing PPV ever in the lighter weight divisions.

And the rivalry between the two icons is one of the reasons that 2006 has been the second best ever year for HBO PPV - with totals of $3.7million for a $177million in revenue - trailing only the bonanza of 1999 since HBO got into the PPV business in 1991.

However, with HBO putting 11 cards on PPV in the first 11 months of 2006, the network has come under fire from boxing fans - some of whom simply cannot afford an extra half a grand a year to follow their favorite sport.

HBO are now saying that 2007 will feature less PPVs than 2006 and, hopefully, this will prove to be the case.

Another interesting aside is that November 18 was the first time when a major boxing PPV went head-to-head with a PPV from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the Las Vegas mixed martial arts group which has just exploded in terms of popularity this year.

The UFC is a private company and does not have to release its' PPV figures, but best guesses are the Las Vegas group is significantly outperforming boxing on PPV and may even break the 1million buys barrier on December 30 when they present Chuck Liddell v Tito Ortiz II from Vegas.

However, as worried as boxing's chiefs are about the UFC juggernaut (and they are worried), the Pacquiao v Morales III numbers would seem to indicate that boxing and UFC can co-exist, even if competing PPVs are never a fun thing for fight fans.

The real trick for boxing in 2007 will be to find ways of encouraging UFC fans to also become fans of the sweet science.