Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown pay-per-view to KO records

The potential pay-per-view television revenue for Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao’s blockbuster welterweight showdown with Floyd Mayweather is so stratospheric that with just four days to go, an actual figure is impossible to predict. Stephen Espinoza, vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports, said interest in the bout is unprecedented to a degree that the usual markers for predicting the number of purchases and revenue just don’t apply.

In general, that’s fairly accurate. On this particular week, we’re seeing numbers that have no precedent - so encouraging and so massive that you really can’t extrapolate anything from them.

Stephen Espinoza, vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports

Anticipated live gate receipts of some $70 million dwarf the previous record for a Nevada fight, the $20 million for Mayweather-Alvarez. Regardless of the outcome, each fighter could make more than $100 million, with Mayweather saying this week he expects to pocket $200 million.