The numbers are out and the mediocre pay-per-view (PPV) numbers weren't much of a surprise to the eyes of many with reference to the Sept. 12 bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Andre Berto.
The recently held fight, which many felt didn't deserve to be on PPV, only managed to churn out figures ranging between 400,000 to 550,000 PPV buys, the lowest for Mayweather since being an HBO rookie back in 2005 and 2006.
Showtime Sports Stephen Espinoza agrees that the numbers would have been better had Mayweather decided to face off against a better and more dangerous fighter like perhaps Amir Khan or Kell Brook.
"We know that a large chunk of the audience watches Floyd to see him lose," he said via ESPN. "And for those people, the best chance of somebody beating Floyd was Manny Pacquiao. So once Floyd beat Manny, and beat him definitively, a lot of the intrigue was gone. If Manny couldn't beat him, nobody would beat him. So they didn't buy the fight. I also think we were suffering a little bit of a hangover over from May 2," he added.
Aside from Espinoza, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey likewise took a swipe at the poor numbers, saying that fans were already disappointed with Mayweather's May 2 fight against Pacquiao and reiterated that fans were not that dumb to watch a one-sided setto.
"I'm not surprised," Rousey told TMZ. "A lot of people were pissed after that Pacquiao fight. Fans aren't dumb," she appended.
Rousey and Mayweather have been going at it verbally in recent months with the latter saying that Rousey and the UFC are simply looking for publicity.
It will be Rousey's turn this coming November when she faces off against challenger Holly Holm in Australia for UFC 193.
Unlike the Mayweather vs. Berto fight however, the Rousey vs. Holm encounter is expected to rack in revenue seeing how Rousey has done so with her previous fights.
