MANILA, Philippines—By all indications, the superfight between Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya won’t be just another blockbuster boxing event, but a global spectacle as well.

Top Rank president Bob Arum, who represents Pacquiao and will co-promote the Dec. 6 bout at the MGM Grand, said the fight will be bigger than the De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jr. bout last year which is considered the richest fight in history.

The fight, which Mayweather won by split decision, reportedly grossed $120 million from the pay-per-view revenues that reached a staggering 2.4 million buys.

“It was a huge fight but it was more or less an American fight,” said Arum in an interview with philboxing.com “This is a global event because Pacquiao is the Asian standard bearer and De La Hoya is of Mexican descent from the United States.”

That’s why this early, promoters Top Rank and Golden Boy are preparing for a wide-reaching road show to promote the fight across the United States, the better to entice the large Filipino community in America.

1.5 million PPV buys

Still, Pacquiao’s camp is conservative with its estimate of at least 1.5 million PPV buys, which is still way too big compared to his previous high of 400,000 buys when he dethroned Juan Manuel Marquez early this year.

During the teleconference Thursday to announce the fight, Arum said even the betting lines just might get affected by the expected huge wave of support for Pacquiao.

Told that the odds are pegged at 8-5 in favor of De La Hoya, Arum was quoted as saying: “Wait until the Filipino money comes in.”

MGM Grand started the lines for De La Hoya at -155, meaning a wager of $155 for the Golden Boy will yield $100. Pacquiao’s number is +135, meaning a $100 bet on Pacman will return $135.

De La Hoya, 35 with 39-5-0 win-loss-draw record with 30 knockouts, acknowledged the pitfalls of getting into a rumble against the shorter, but faster and younger Pacquiao.

“I also have to keep in mind that Manny Pacquiao is a southpaw. So in the past the southpaw fighters that I have fought I really haven’t done very well with, so this is not going to be an easy fight I have no intentions of taking it easy in the gym. I have no intentions of looking for this fight to be easy,” said De La Hoya in the teleconference.

“I mean, this is going to be very difficult, because this will be the strongest, fastest southpaw fighter I’ve ever faced, and just because he’s the pound-for-pound champion,” he said.

Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 KOs) said: “ Well, I’m not saying that I’m going to knock out Oscar. I will do my best. He gave a good fight, a real good fight, and you know what? What I believe is I am faster than De La Hoya and I think I can box him in the fight.”