Mayweather and Pacquiao getting richer by the day
The first ticket has yet to be sold, but the richest fight in boxing history is getting richer by the day.
The first ticket has yet to be sold, but the richest fight in boxing history is getting richer by the day.
New estimates show Floyd Mayweather Jnr’s payoff for fighting Manny Pacquiao could easily be US$180 million, up substantially from earlier predictions of US$120 million. Pacquiao gets the short end of the purse, but even that is expected to be well over US$100 million by the time everything is tallied up.
Anyone who predicts the total pay-per-view is whistling in the dark
The money is staggering, though not exactly unexpected. Five years of waiting seem to have only piqued the public’s demand for the one fight even casual fans of the sport want to see.
“For whatever it’s worth, the build-up over these years has certainly enhanced the fight,” promoter Bob Arum. “Everybody knows about it now, even people who don’t follow boxing. Plus we have a good economy, unlike in 2009 when people were out of work and didn’t have the money to spend.”
Fans will certainly have to pay a price to see the May 2 welterweight title bout, especially those lucky enough to score a ticket inside the MGM Grand arena itself. Ticket prices there range from US$1,500 in the upper deck to US$7,500 at ringside – and only a small percentage of the tickets will actually be put on public sale.
Arum said the gate at the MGM alone will be more than US$72 million, obliterating the previous live gate record of US$20 million in Nevada set by Mayweather’s 2013 fight with Canelo Alvarez. Though the MGM will provide some tickets for its biggest gamblers, Arum said even the celebrities who can normally get free tickets to sit ringside will have to pay full fare for the fight – if they can get their hands on tickets at all.
