Manny Pacquiao Aims for Richest Fight of His Career

Lee Samuels of Top Rank, the promotions company that handles Manny Pacquiao's fights, says all seats have been taken for his fight this Saturday against Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Likewise, close-circuit TV tickets on sale in hotels are selling fast.

“They're all cleaned up,” Samuels told Philboxing, referring to the tickets for the fight which was already almost sold out during the first three hours when the ticket sales opened last February.

“All the seats of the arena are taken,” Samuels said. Aside from the the arena tickets, close-circuit tickets are also on sale in hotels around Las Vegas and are selling like hot cakes, the report added.

“This is also the biggest media coverage ever for a Pacquiao fight,” Samuels added.

“All the big media guys are here, even those those who don't usually cover boxing are here. We're having a hard time accommodating everyone. We have to reject more than 200 credential applications because there is no more space to accommodate them in the arena. This is even bigger than Pacquiao-De la Hoya fight.”

Pacquiao is reportedly getting a guaranteed purse of $20 million—more than three times his purse ($6 million) from his fight with Oscar de la Hoya in 2008, who was then guaranteed a purse of $20 million. That is, the same amount that Pacquiao is getting for this fight.

It is unlikely that the Pacquiao-Mosley fight will generate more than 2.4 million in pay-per-view buys, which was the PPV figure for his fight with de la Hoya.

However, if it does, this fight could end up being the biggest fight of Pacquiao's boxing career in terms of attendance, media coverage and fight revenues.