The Mayweather-Pacquiao fight shattered expectations, and Mayweather could end up making $250 million

Some of the pay-per-view (PPV) sales figures for the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight are starting trickle out and they are blowing away even the most bullish expectations. As a result, the fighters are going to end up making more money than anybody thought.

Most estimates prior to the fight set expectations at three million PPV buys, which would have easily broken the previous record of 2.48 million for the Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya fight in 2007. However, as the fight drew closer, at least one sportsbook put the over/under betting line at 3.8 million.

Now, Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports reports that based on some of the early figures coming in, the number of PPV buys for Mayweather-Pacquiao will be closer to 5.63 million and could go even higher.

We already know that DirecTV sold 1.15 million PPVs, Dish Network sold 500,000, and AT&T's uVerse and Verizon's FIOS combined to sell 600,000. That means the satellite and phone companies combined to sell 2.25 million.

Those numbers alone already make Mayweather-Pacquiao the second-biggest PPV draw ever. But we are not even close to being finished. We don't know the numbers for the cable companies yet, and according to Iole they typically account for 55-65% of total buys.

Iole estimated that if cable companies make up 60% of the sales, the final number of PPV buys would be about 5.625 million. Even if we take the low end of the estimate, the minimum number of PPV sales would be five million, with the high end at 6.43 million.

The implications for Mayweather and Pacquiao's bank accounts are staggering.

PPV sales account for the bulk of fight revenue.

According to John Branch of the New York Times, 30-40% of the PPV revenue goes to the cable/satellite/phone companies and 7.5% of what is left is split by HBO and Showtime, which broadcast the event. Most of what is left over is split 60-40 for the fighters in favor of Mayweather.

Based a PPV buys estimate of 5.625 million, Mayweather will make $167-195 million from the PPV sales alone with Pacquiao taking home $114-133 million.

Again, that is just from the PPV sales. According to Branch, other revenue streams will generate close to $140 million for the fighters to split.

At the end of the day, Mayweather is going to take home $250-275 million with Pacquiao clearing $170-190 million.

Not bad for a fight that took less than an hour.