Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum has been part of some of the biggest pay per views in history and having built his business Top Rank largely on the pay per view model, it’s safe to say he knows a thing or two about how pay per view works.
In recent times Arum has said that he believes pay per view is not dead contrary to comments from rival promoters Oscar De La Hoya and Eddie Hearn.
In fact, Arum is venturing into pay per view for the first time with his new partners ESPN for the upcoming Terence Crawford vs Amir Khan WBO welterweight title fight on April 20th.
Moreover, he’s made a huge claim about how it will perform.
Speaking to Danny Flexen of Seconds Out, Arum said:
“I think the pay per view numbers, we have a real shot to hit 500,000 or above in the United States and of course there’ll be pay per view numbers in the UK.”
An early admission from Arum there that the fight will be on pay per view in the UK as well as the US.
As for the projection, it’s probably a bold one.
Sure, Amir Khan is a big name.
But if you keep in mind that the recent WBC heavyweight title fight between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury in LA last month did 300,000 buys (reportedly) in the US, it’s hard to see how Khan vs Crawford is a bigger fight than that.
