MANILA, Philippines ? Boxing champion Manny Pacquiao?s biggest fight is the biggest pay day ever for Solar Entertainment Corp., which has a lock on the Philippine broadcast rights of the boxing icon?s fights up to 2011.

Sunday?s match with Briton Ricky Hatton was bigger than Pacquiao?s blockbuster fight with Oscar dela Hoya five months ago, Jude Turcuato, Solar Sports vice president for sales and marketing, said

"It?s not big percentage-wise but we?re coming from an already big base, the De La Hoya fight. The bottom line is this is the biggest,?? said Turcuato who declined to give exact figures except that they definitely made more than P100 million on Sunday.

Turcuato said the Wilson Tieng-owned media outfit scored record numbers in television ad placements, ticket sales and pay-per-view subscriptions based on preliminary data.

Compared to the De La Hoya fight, Turcuato said Solar practically had blanket coverage of all theaters in Metro Manila in the Hatton match.

There were slightly more venues for the Hatton fight, but Turcuato said the new additions were much bigger in terms of capacity, notably the Araneta Coliseum, which was filled with paying patrons up to the bleachers to watch Pacquiao on the giant screens.

Turcuato said that since the De La Hoya fight, Filipinos have been craving for the collective experience of watching a Pacquiao fight live with thousands of fans rooting for the same man, not unlike a World Cup match.

Solar posted higher bookings not only from commercial outlets such as hotels and sports bars but also from provincial capitols to barangay (village) halls as local government leaders gave in to the clamor of their constituents to watch the fight in real time.

Aside from having a marketable foe leveled against Pacquiao, Turcuato said the tug-of-war on the broadcast rights also added to the hoopla.

"The controversy actually benefited us in a way because the public became more aware of how big the fight is and it heightened their interest," he said, referring to Pacquiao?s aborted transfer to ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. last March.

Whether Pacquiao?s next foe is WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto or retired welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., Turcuato is confident that the Pacman?s next bout will break the bank for Solar again.