Trinidad-Jones Posts 500,000 Buys

Last Saturday's Felix Trinidad-Roy Jones Jr. fight beat expectations, posting 500,000 buys on pay-per-view for HBO Boxing's first event of 2008. The show had been ridiculed, by UFC Vice President Marc Ratner among others, as being several years too late. Jones had been inactive for the better part of three years coming into the fight, while Trinidad had been retired for two and half years.

Similar complaints were raised in 2006 when Royce Gracie fought Matt Hughes and both times Ken Shamrock fought Tito Ortiz. At the time the hardcore fan base blasted the booking as one sided, asking "who wants to see that?" The events went on to do 620,000 and 775,000 buys respectively, not to mention a then record 5.7 million viewers for the final Ortiz-Shamrock fight on Spike.

The lesson is clear: casual fans like to see stars, even if they are past their prime.