Mayweather vs. Ortiz: Starpower Event Reportedly Sold 1.25 Million PPVs

Dan Rafael, ESPN boxing blogger, has broken the news recently on Twitter that the recent pay-per-view fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Victor Ortiz had brought in roughly 1.25 million buys.

This finally puts to rest the numerous amount of people that have been posting different figures around the Internet, ranging from 800,000 to 1.15 million views sold.

The fight was speculated to have done fairly poor, due to HBO taking a while to release the official numbers (about a month and a half), the numerous numbers several media members had been posting to their social media accounts, as well as the heat that Mayweather has been receiving since his previous PPV event last May.

Here are some numbers to help put Floyd's recent accomplishment into perspective:

—Mayweather vs. Ortiz's 1.25 million buys is about 1.2 million more than what Hopkins vs. Dawson sold (less than 100,000).

—The Starpower event's 1.25 million buys makes it tied for third in all-time non-heavyweight PPVs.

—The event tied with Pacquiao/Cotto and Pacquiao/De La Hoya.

—It's behind only Mayweather/De La Hoya and De La Hoya/Trinida (for non-heavyweight bouts).

—The fight generated approximately $78.4 million in PPV revenue, making it the second-highest grossing non-heavyweight PPV.

—Floyd Mayweather, Jr. holds the two highest-grossing non-heavyweight PPVs and the highest PPV numbers in boxing.

—While Mayweather/Ortiz sold 1.25 (tied with two Pacquiao fights), the fight cost $10.00 more than the usual PPV, helping to propel it to a higher revenue level.

Before anybody says that PPV numbers don't mean anything, I think that it means a lot more than people make it out to be.

We must remember that while boxing is a sport, it's also a business and an entertainment industry.