Super fight between Mayweather, Pacquiao to gross over $400M

Boxers Floyd Mayweather Jr., left, and Manny Pacquiao, of the Philippines, pose for photos after a news conference, Wednesday, March 11, 2015, in Los Angeles. AP

MANILA, Philippines—The Super Fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao is turning out to be even bigger than initially hyped.

Earlier projected to generate record sales of $300 million, the fight is now expected to gross over $400 million, an amount unheard of in combat sports, according to an ESPN.com report.

Revised live gate computation for the showdown for the undisputed welterweight crown on May 2 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas shows $74 million from sales of over 15,000 tickets that range in prices from $1,500 to $10,000 —which are not for sale to the public, however.

Coveted prime seats retail as much as $24,442 (about P1.083 million) on the resale market.

The biggest chunk of earnings from the fight, to be jointly aired by Showtime and HBO, will come from pay-per-view sales, tipped to be at $100 each, which is bound to surpass the 2.4 million PPV hits posted by Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya in 2007.

Foreign television rights will generate $35 million more, with the Philippine rights already acquired by Solar for $10 million.

“It’s crazy, but it is what it is,” Top Rank chief Bob Arum told ESPN.com.

With the majority of the tickets already cornered by MGM, the fighters, the promoters, HBO and Showtime, only a handful of tickets will go on sale next week.