Mayweather defeated Cotto in an entertaining main event last Saturday

HBO sent out a press release today reporting that the May 5 pay-per-view headlined by Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto did 1.5 million buys, a very strong showing indeed but, it must be said, yet again well short of the supposed "early indicators" that had this fight "breaking all the records."

Mayweather defeated Cotto in an entertaining main event last Saturday, winning a 12-round decision in a fight that pretty much met its high-end expectation: Two great fighters providing a competitive bout, rather than one-way traffic in a wipeout, which has unfortunately become the norm for the major pay-per-view events in boxing.

With its hefty price tag, the event generated $94 million in pay-per-view revenue, second in non-heavyweight history only to Mayweather's 2007 win over Oscar De La Hoya, which pulled in $137 million. That fight is still far and away the benchmark for everything: PPV buys, PPV revenue, gate revenue.

This is a number straight from HBO, so for once there should be no quibbling about the legitimacy. This isn't a promoted-floated number, and to be perfectly honest, a lot of the recent PPV figures you've heard about are suspect, given that they were promoted-reported. This one is real. This fight was really bought by 1.5 million people in the States.

In the last two days, there have been some rumors about Miguel Cotto possibly protesting the scoring of his loss on Saturday to Floyd Mayweather, where the official judges had Floyd the winner on scores of 118-110, 117-111, and 117-111. But Cotto says that he has no plans to protest the scoring, despite the fact that his team felt the scores were too wide.

Cotto (37-3, 30 KO) fought valiantly and impressed the viewing audience on Saturday, but I don't think there's any doubt that he lost to Mayweather, and outside of thinking 118-110 was a bit too wide, I can't say as though I had any problem with the scoring, either, and God knows we're all about calling out boxing judges when something seems fishy or just plain wrong. Bad Left Hook scored the fight 116-112, but that or 117-111 seemed dead on to me.