De la Hoya-Pacquiao sells out, gate near $17 million

by Scott Christ on Sep 24, 2008 5:11 PM EDT

Top Rank's Bob Arum and Golden Boy chief Oscar de la Hoya, two very happy men.
(via cache.daylife.com)

Organizers announced that all of the approximately 16,000 tickets to "The Dream Match" at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas (HBO PPV) sold out for a gate of almost $17 million.
The total makes De La Hoya-Pacquiao the second-biggest gate in boxing history, surpassed only by the $18,419,200 worth of tickets sold for De La Hoya's fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 5, 2007.

The total surpasses the $16,860,300 generated by the 1999 heavyweight championship rematch in Las Vegas between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield, promoters said.

It means De La Hoya will be a part of four of the top 10 gates in Nevada history; his bouts with Felix Trinidad and Bernard Hopkins are also in the top 10.

Not bad, huh?

Oscar remains a force of nature when it comes to selling a fight and capturing public interest, and Pacquiao proves to be a worthy advesary, at least at the box office.

The closer this fight gets, the less concern I have about how uncompetitive I think it could be, and the more I find myself bending to the fact that it is an interesting fight, and it's absolutely an event. In short, I'm failing to not get swept up in the anticipation. The crowd will be rocking, the atmosphere will be electric, and Manny Pacquiao has a chance to do something very, very special.

That should be enough, I guess. Consider me a flip-flopper on this one.

Tweet Comment 10 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Impressive… I was just on the bloody elbow blog( a great site as well even if you are not a MMA fan) and they were having problems with their UFC 91 card. The economy is really in the gutter and for this event to be sold out within hours is quite the accomplishment.

by Zocalo on Sep 24, 2008 5:23 PM EDT reply actions

while the quick sell-out is impressive, a couple of issues:

1) weren’t only a very few tickets released to the general public?
2) i understand why the promoters talk this up, but these nominal “biggest ever” numbers are almost meaningless if they aren’t indexed (although the comparison to last year’s DLH/Money show is more valid because it was recent enough for the number to have some relevance). in real dollars the lewis/holyfield gate was way bigger. and the million dollar gates of the 1920s were orders of magnitude larger.

by boxingstudent on Sep 24, 2008 7:50 PM EDT reply actions

absolutely

I try to refer to ODLH-FMJ as the “richest” fight ever, because it is by no means the biggest. Even when comparing it to old Tyson PPVs, since ODLH-FMJ did the biggest PPV number ever for boxing, you have to account for the fact that a lot more people had that PPV available to them in today’s world.

This would be the second “richest” gate ever.

"Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth." -- Bob Arum

Camden Chat
Bad Left Hook

by Scott Christ on Sep 24, 2008 8:14 PM EDT up reply actions

i guess my point is that it isn’t the “richest” gate unless you only care about the raw dollar figure. take the $2 million dempsey/tunney II gate from 1927 and convert that into today’s money: $24 million or so. take the lewis/holyfield gate and do the same calculation: $21.6 million or so.

by boxingstudent on Sep 24, 2008 8:29 PM EDT up reply actions

that's all I mean

Raw dollar figure. Absolutely there have been a ton of bigger fights whose dollar figures translate into way bigger 2008 money.

Still, $17 mil is impressive for a welterweight fight.

"Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth." -- Bob Arum

Camden Chat
Bad Left Hook

by Scott Christ on Sep 24, 2008 8:51 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah it’s sick money for what’s arguably a circus mismatch.

by boxingstudent on Sep 24, 2008 8:55 PM EDT up reply actions

"Top Rank's Bob Arum and Golden Boy chief Oscar de la Hoya, two very happy men."

Shit, who wouldn’t be?

I bet you anything Roach is sitting back with his twisted glasses, “I take back what I said about not getting a paycheck. Wait what was it that I said. So if I don’t remember than it doesn’t actually count.”

"I beat him so bad, he ended up in the Hospital. And I am still pretty." -Cassius Clay

by CRAZEDANG1280 on Sep 24, 2008 7:57 PM EDT reply actions

good night De la Hoya

It was a stone groove my man, you know . You are, the most righteous , the cooliest…..Yeah, yeah,yeah, just get the f*ck out. -Trading Places the movie. Pac man is going to destroy DeLa Hoya. Remember his last performance… Not to mention the stamina probem! Pac in 10 rounds!!!!

by Haans Bishop on Sep 25, 2008 10:57 AM EDT reply actions

Yup...

if he can’t KO Stevie Forbes, he’s not getting Pac either. DLH is punk for even picking on a guy that small, but i still predict he will lose.

It's not the size of the dog... It's whats in the fight of Bernard Hopkins! -BHOP

by blackpage on Sep 25, 2008 1:04 PM EDT reply actions

I do think Oscar fought Forbes like he was sparring. He never really let his hands go. Which is probably why Roach said he can’t pull the trigger anymore.

"Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth." -- Bob Arum

Camden Chat
Bad Left Hook

by Scott Christ on Sep 25, 2008 3:37 PM EDT up reply actions