Brokers and scalpers are making a killing in ticket sales for the May 7 world welterweight title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley, Hall of Famepromoter Bob Arum said from his lair in Las Vegas.
"People are making so much money from this fight," said Arum, the 79-year-old chief of Top Rank Inc, undoubtedly the leading promotional outfit these days. "People are waking up in the morning saying 'I want a ticket to the fight' and they would pay any amount to get one."
Demand for tickets to the 12-round war at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas that Arum said there's none available now.
"What we have now are three tickets...three tickets and by tomorrow, they would all be gone," said Arum in his trademark New York drawl.
Tickets - priced from a high of $1,000 to a low of $150 -were made available to the public two months ago.
Internet sellers are making huge profits with them low-priced tickets pegged as much as $350, while the high-end ringside seat is selling for as much as $3,800.
Even the closed-circuit viewing is starting to catch on following the unavailability of tickets to the 17,000-seat venue.
"So far, there's been a sale of 3,000 tickets to closed-circuit and all the MGM-Mirage operated hotels and resorts will be showing the fight," said Arum.
"We still have a full month ahead and everything's great about the promotion," added Arum.
Where are all the Manny Pacquiao vs. Sugar Shane Mosley promotional commercials on CBS that Bob Arum and writers were boasting about? Wasn’t it part of the Showtime/CBS deal to heavily promote this boxing event for May 7, 2011?
I’ve been watching March Madness NCAA college basketball and I haven’t seen any commercials regarding the Pacquiao-Mosley Showtime pay-per-view for May 7th. I’ve been watching Survivor, CSI, and Criminal Minds during the highest watched primetime hours, and I haven’t seen a single commercial for Pacquiao vs. Mosley.
I also noticed that the FIGHT CAMP 360 for Pacquiao-Mosley will debut April 2 on CBS at 9:00 am in the morning and it will be 20 days before the second episode airs, this will make viewers lose interest in the fight having to wait so long for a second episode. HBO 24/7 airs 4 episodes every week near fight time to keep us updated.
Who watches TV during the early morning hours on a Saturday? Most people sleep in after a long week of hard work they want to rest on Saturday and not wake up early. I doubt the Fight Camp 360 will have high ratings or even be seen by enough people to make a difference in pay-per-view buys.
There isn’t much talk about this fight, and it’s already a match-up that the boxing fans are boycotting. I think the jump to Showtime will backfire on Arum and Pacquiao because HBO is still the king of boxing pay-per-view.
With the lower than expected PPV numbers of 250,000 buys for the Miguel Cotto vs. Ricardo Mayorga fight, I don’t see the Pacquiao-Mosley fight doing well at all, especially with the lack of promotion leading up to the fight.
I predict the Manny Pacquiao vs. Sugar Shane Mosley PPV will fall around the 500 to 600,000 pay-per-view buys range, it definitely won’t hit a million buys or the exaggerated prediction of two million buys that some obsessive die hard Pacquiao fans predict.
This could prove to people that Manny Pacquiao’s star power is overrated.
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