By James Slater – Though a good number of fans moaned and groaned when it was announced that Pound-for-Pound king Manny Pacquiao would be facing a faded-looking, 39-year-old “Sugar” Shane Mosley in his next fight, tickets for the May 7th bout in Las Vegas have sold like hot cakes. Yesterday, between the hours of 10 A.M and 1 P.M, a reported 16,000 tickets were sold to fans eager to watch Pac-Man’s latest fight. Once again, the 32-year-old Filipino dynamo has proven he is the undisputed box office king!
Looked at as something of a mismatch on paper, some fans suggested they would avoid paying for Pacquiao-Mosley, so angry were they that Pac-Man was choosing to face a guy who has not won a fight since January of 2009. But with just one thousand tickets left, the live attendance at THE MGM Grand will prove to promoter Bob Arum that he did the right thing in matching his star fighter with the man who will turn 40 four months after the fight.
Arum himself was surprised at yesterday’s demand for tickets.
“Incredible. Simply incredible,” The Top Rank boss said of the ticket sales. “I have never promoted a fight that has sold so many tickets so quickly. Manny Pacquiao never ceases to amaze the world with his achievements. The excitement he generated today makes it feel like fight week already!”
But will we get a good fight come May 7th? It is surprising that this fight has attracted so many quick buys compared to Pac-Man’s last few fights. Do the fans who paid up to $1,000 (for a ringside ticket) really expect to see a better, more competitive fight than Pacquiao-Margarito, or Pacquiao-Cotto?
Pacquiao, with this latest success story, has proven that he can fight just about anybody and the fans will show up to see him. Imagine how massive, then, a Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight would be at the live gate! We have yet to see how many Pay-Per-View buys Pac-Man-Mosley generates, but right now Bob Arum has been vindicated in choosing Mosley over Juan Manuel Marquez and Andre Berto – these two fighters being the two other possible options for the May 7th date.
On the plus side, Pacquiao has proven he is and always will be a superstar, and that’s good for boxing. On the negative side, fights that many good judges look at as mismatches going in continue to be made and then prove to be a hit with the fans. That’s not good for boxing.