Home Box Office Pay-Per-View's March 1 John Ruiz-Roy Jones Jr.
heavyweight-championship PPV event drew a surprising 525,000 buys, according to
network executives.
The fight -- in which light heavyweight champ Jones moved up in weight to win
the heavyweight title from Ruiz in a decisive, 12-round decision -- earned $26.5
million for the PPV industry, HBO senior vice president of sports operations
Mark Taffet said.
The event -- which retailed at a suggested price of $49.95 -- outperformed
most industry estimations and bested the take for higher-profile fights like the
September 2001 Felix Trinidad-Bernard Hopkins match and the November 2001 Hasim
Rahman-Lennox Lewis II fight.
"Not only were the naysayers wrong [about the fight's performance], but they
all watched it on PPV," Taffet said. "It proves once again that no media
delivers revenue like PPV when you put together the right matchups in the right
setting, both of which were accomplished with the [Jones-Ruiz]
fight."
