Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul's eight-round boxing exhibition at the weekend reportedly pulled in more than a a million pay-per-view buys in the US – with fight fans voicing admiration and derision at the purported figure.
The viewing numbers for the bout at the Miami Dolphins' Hard Rock Stadium, which ended without a winner, have been the subject of considerable conjuecture.
One reputable American journalist, Dave Meltzer, wrote that Mayweather-Paul had only garnered between 600,000 and 650,000 buys on TV. But a new claim has suggested that there were more than a million buys, causing one fan to respond that "Floyd still sells" and another to laud the unbeaten veteran as "still the PPV king, even in retirement".
"There’s no precise PPV number available yet, but the show will at least exceed one million in buys," said The Athletic's Mike Coppinger, reporting on the spectacle that was priced at $49.99 on Showtime in the US.
Mayweather had boasted that his projected earnings for the card – named 'Bragging Rights' – made the heist a "legalized bank robbery".
Pay-per-view earnings of $50 million would appear to make the former five-weight champion's claim that he made double that amount from the fight unlikely.
"I prefer to still go out, entertain and have fun," he told entrepreneur Rob Moore in the build-up, justifying his reasons for taking on the fight.
"Just because I go out and entertain, have fun, doesn't mean that I still want to fight 12 rounds.
"I think we got a six-round exhibition and I think it's going to be very entertaining, and the people are going to love it.
"We've got to look at $35 million for 12 rounds or $100 million for six rounds. Big difference, big difference.
"And I can't really say what the numbers are going to be – how much money I'm going to make or how much Logan Paul is going to make.
"But we're talking about projecting, we've always got to talk about what it's projected to make."
"Have we still to believe Mayweather made $100 million and Paul made $25 million?," one cynic asked online.
"The funniest one I heard was Mayweather saying he made $30 million off [his] trunk sponsors when the guy literally went his whole career bar his last two or three fights unable to get a short sponsor.
"Both guys clearly made a sh*t ton from this fight, especially Floyd. But there's no need to exaggerate it the way he does.
"This is like [Conor] McGregor saying he made $50 million for fighting Khabib [Nurmagomedov] but would make $80 million to fight [Donald] Cerrone.
"They are both desperate to out-do one another financially."
Naysayers also mocked the accuracy of the sales figure. "This is funny," one said.
"It generated one million buys but the numbers are not precise. But yeah, let'se call it one million."
Others echoed UFC president Dana White's disbelief that punters had paid for the fight at all.
"If you’ve got people that are stupid enough to spend that kind of money, then they deserve to take those dummies’ money," White told UFC Arabia this week, before suggesting a match up between 'champ champ' Amanda Nunes and reality show star Kim Kardashian next in the world of celebrity boxing.
"Those guys who went out and fought and got you to pay 50 bucks, they deserve your money."
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