Boxing: Popular broadcaster Lederman dies at 79

LOS ANGELES -- Respected boxing judge turned broadcaster Harold Lederman, best known as the unofficial scorekeeper for HBO Boxing, has died at 79 after battling cancer, veteran promoter Lou DiBella said Saturday.

Lederman began his career as a boxing judge in 1967 and joined the cast of HBO World Championship Boxing in 1986.

His death comes less than six months after he worked the final card on HBO, to cap the cable television network's 40-year run in the sport.

"Just learned that my friend of 30 years, Harold Lederman, has succumbed to the cancer he fought so hard," DiBella said on Twitter, adding that Lederman "was one of a kind & there will never be another".

His praise for the knowledgeable and always ebullient Lederman was echoed by figures throughout the boxing world, and by Lederman's former colleagues at HBO.

"Harold Lederman had a lifelong love affair with the sport of boxing," Peter Nelson, executive vice president of HBO Sports said in a statement. "Over the past fifty years he was universally respected and celebrated by the many people who make the sport what it is.

"Harold was happiest when seated ringside, studying the action and scoring the fight. When he joined HBO Sports in 1986 he added a new and critical component to live boxing coverage.

"Viewers embraced his unique style and his command of the rules while his broadcast colleagues relished his enthusiasm and boundless energy."

Lederman earned his license from the New York State Athletic Commission to judge title fights on June 26, 1967.

He judged more than 100 title fights while maintaining his pharmacy practice in New York.

His commentating career began before he retired from active judging in 1999, and his detailed explanations of how he analyzed and scored bouts were a key feature of HBO's boxing telecasts.

"No one in the sport had more friends, because no one in the sport was more deserving of friends," said HBO boxing announcer Jim Lampley in a statement.

Lederman was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2016. His daughter Julie Lederman followed in his footsteps and became a boxing judge.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Mayweather-Pacquiao revenue over $400M: report

LAS VEGAS -- Record-shattering revenue totals for Manny Pacquiao's upcoming boxing showdown with unbeaten Floyd Mayweather could surpass $400 million, promoter Bob Arum told ESPN in a report Monday on the sports network's website.

The welterweight title unification fight May 2 in Las Vegas will generate $74 million from just over 15,000 tickets at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Pacquiao promoter Arum told ESPN, flattening the old mark of just over $20 million for Mayweather's 2013 fight with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in the same venue.

Promoters first aimed for $40 million, then boosted the ticket prices from $1,000 to $1,500 at the low end and $5,000 to $7,500 for the best seats due to huge demand for the ducats, Arum said.

But organizers have now shuffled the number of seats in various price ranges and boosted top seats to $10,000 to raise the live gate total from $50 million to $74 million.

"It's crazy, but it is what it is," Arum told ESPN. "It's amazing."

And few if any seats will be available for public sale, with promoters, telecasters HBO and Showtime, the fighters and the host venue each taking a share of the tickets.

"We'll probably have a handful of tickets that will go on sale to the public next week," Arum said. "It's mania."

There will be only about 1,100 seats at $10,000, none of them for public sale, according to the report.

Boxing's record for pay-per-view purchases is the 2.4 million buys from Mayweather's 2007 split-decision victory over Oscar de la Hoya, but with Mayweather-Pacquiao having taken more than five years to come together with the planet's top pound-for-pound fighters, expectations of 3 million pay-per-view buys at about $100 each could bring $300 million in sales for US, Puerto Rican and Canadian markets alone.

"We wouldn't have gotten a fraction of these numbers if we made the fight five years ago," Arum said. "It turned out that we're doing the fight at the right time, I guess, not that we're geniuses for waiting this long."

Global rights are expected to ring up another $35 million, with a record $10 million already spent for rights in the Philippines, where Pacquiao is a Congressman as well as an iconic figure.

"Between the gate, the foreign television sales and the closed circuit, which we can't even calculate yet, you're looking at over $120 million. And that's before one pay-per-view has been sold in the US," Arum told ESPN.

Arum said Tecate beer, a long-time Pacquiao sponsor, won title sponsor rights with a $5.6 million bid, $400,000 more than rival Corona, a long-time backer of Mayweather.

"We've never see anything like that on a beer sponsor," Arum said. "Both companies were after it. It's a huge number."

Mayweather's camp receives 60 percent of the revenue with Pacquiao's side taking home 40 percent.

Arum said the contract gives Pacquiao the choice of who sings his homeland's national anthem before the bout while Mayweather decides who will sing "The Star Spangled Banner."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com