The return of welterweight Floyd Mayweather Jr., who easily outpointed Juan Manuel Marquez after 21 months in retirement last Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, generated an astonishing 1 million pay-per-view buys, HBO announced Friday.

Despite a fight many viewed as a mismatch between the bigger and faster Mayweather and the smaller and slower lightweight champion Marquez moving up in weight, the fight was a giant success on pay-per-view -- especially considering it went head-to-head with a UFC pay-per-view card. Many industry experts had expected a pay-per-view buy rate in the 600,000 to 700,000 range.

The fight generated $52 million in domestic pay-per-view revenue and is only the fifth time in boxing PPV history that a non-heavyweight event has reached seven figures.