THE YAWNER of a fight still managed to ring cash registers.
Manny Pacquiao’s successful title defense of his WBO welterweight crown against Shane Mosley last Saturday at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas lured the second biggest crowd (16,412) among Pacquiao’s bouts in Las Vegas, and is the second most profitable at the gates ($8,882,600) as well.
Boxing analyst Dan Rafael of ESPN.com tweeted the figures yesterday. The gate receipt is the 14th all-time best in Nevada history.
Pacquiao hammered out a lopsided victory over Mosley, decking the American in the third round before chasing his oft-running foe the rest of the way.
Only Pacquiao’s second fight of a trilogy against Mexican warrior Erik Morales—a vengeful 2006 victory—drew more fans, with 18,276 storming the Thomas & Mack Center gates.
Pacquiao’s top-grosser in terms of profit, though, came in 2008, when fight fans coughed up a total of $14,380,300 to watch how the Filipino icon made Oscar De La Hoya quit on his stool.
The pay-per-view receipts have not been fully accounted for but fight promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank told Filipino sportswriters before they left Los Angeles that initial reports of PPV sales indicate that the Pacquiao-Mosley bout is on track of matching, if not exceeding, the 1.2 million PPV buys the Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito bout drew last November.
According to Arum, there’s even a chance that Pacquiao-Mosley could surpass the 1.25 million PPV sales of Pacquiao-De La Hoya.
Pacquiao has actually drawn bigger attendance numbers before. For the Pacquiao-Margarito fight, 41,734 fans were recorded. Against Ghanaian Joshua Clottey, 50,994 came to watch the pound-for-pound king. Both fights, though, were held at the huge Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, a venue specifically built for huge football crowds.
Previously, Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton was the second best in Las Vegas, attracting 16,262 and earning $8,847,550 at the gates.
Meanwhile, Juan Manuel Marquez wants a tune-up bout against former Pacquiao victim David Diaz on July 2 to be better prepared for his slated trilogy with Pacquiao on Nov. 12 at the MGM Grand.