The money that will be generated by the welterweight title unification fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao — already expected to be a slam dunk to break every revenue record in combat sports history — is growing by the day and could easily surpass $400 million.
The live gate for the joint Showtime/HBO pay-per-view fight on May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas will generate a staggering $74 million from the sale of a little more than 15,000 tickets, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, told ESPN.com on Monday.
That is more than 3½ times the gate record of $20,003,150 generated by ticket sales for Mayweather’s junior middleweight unification fight against Canelo Alvarez, also at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, in September 2013.