Boxing Claims Big Pay-Per-View Victory Over UFC 103

Days after the Floyd Mayweather Jr-Juan Manuel Marquez fight went head-to-head with UFC 103 on pay-per-view, Golden Boy Promotions is declaring that boxing scored a knockout victory over MMA, with four or five times as many buys as the UFC.

It's important to note that Mayweather-Marquez was the biggest boxing match of 2009, while UFC 103 wasn't close to the biggest MMA card of the year. And it's also important to note that pay-per-view buy rates are difficult to nail down.

But Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said that when all the numbers come in, he'll have an impressive buy rate to announce, likely over 1 million.

Ring Magazine quotes Schaefer:

"Through the roof," he said, referring to the numbers. "I'm hearing through the roof. I don't want to announce anything. When I announce it, I want to be able to fully stand behind it. It's big, very big. A lot of people didn't believe us. Maybe I've gained a little credibility with my predictions.

"Most importantly, I hope the world realizes when we release these numbers that Floyd Mayweather, love him or hate him, is today, without any question, no ifs, ands or buts, the No. 1 pay-per-view star in the world. No question about it."

Schaefer said Mayweather-Marquez did four or five times the numbers UFC 103 did, although a better question in measuring the relative pay-per-view strengths of the sports would be whether Mayweather-Marquez did better than UFC 100, which reportedly generated well over 1 million buys. When all the numbers come in, Mayweather-Marquez will likely fall short of UFC 100, but on Saturday night, it came out on top in a big way.