Stephen Espinoza, executive vice-president and general manager of Showtime Sports, told this newspaper Friday morning that stories speculating that this past Saturday’s Showtime pay-per-view presentation of the welterweight title fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero at MGM Grand in Las Vegas did not do well and that Showtime lost money, are false.
“Numbers are still coming in, but we’ve got enough of the report that we are confident in saying we will be over 1 million buys,” Espinoza said. “Not sure how much yet, a lot of that will be determined over the next few weeks.”
Espinoza said Mayweather generating that many buys against a fighter who is not quite a huge name, is even more impressive.
“Without having a very well-known opponent, it really is a testament to Floyd’s drawing power,” Espinoza said.
Espinoza was asked about the scuttlebutt that Showtime lost money.
“There are some numbers out there floating around that we had to do X or Y in order to break even,” he said. “No idea where they came from. … But we are very happy with the result of over a millon buys. And the rumors of our financial demise are greatly exaggerated, if not completely untrue.
“No one realy has any basis for writing about that break-even point because that is something only we know.”
Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions – which helps Mayweather promote his fights – is now working on a Mayweather-Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight for Sept. 14 at MGM Grand.
Espinoza said if that fight gets made, the promotion would likely include even more platforms than were used for Mayweather-Guerrero, which utilized Showtime’s parent company – CBS.
“It would certainly be adjusted to include more of the Spanish-language production,” Espinoza said.