When Bob Arum began sounding very much like a carnival barker, trumpeting the June 9 world welterweight title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley like it was David taking on Goliath, just very few people knew he wasn’t hyping it up.
Arum said that for the first time in a long while, Pacquiao is taking on a younger and fresher opponent, a far cry from the ones who were either in their mid or late-thirties or a little past their prime.
Arum is so pumped up that he has made a bold declaration regarding the pay-per-view (PPV) sales when the Bulletin contacted him as he was chilling out in his Las Vegas home.
“This fight will do well (in PPV sales),” said Arum, assuring his caller that Pacquiao will break the 1.4 million buys he posted when he fought Juan Manuel Marquez last year.
“Way over a million,” said Arum, drawing strong vibes from the fantastic ticket sales. “This will be even better than the Marquez fight.”
The MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas has been reconfigured to seat 17,000 for the fight and Arum said after tickets went on sale last Friday, “we’ve already sold 14,000 tickets.”
“This is going to sell better because this is a very competitive fight,” said the 80-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer who is in his 46th year promoting.
While Bradley is not a big-named foe like the ones Pacquiao has feasted on the past few years, the 28-year-old native of Palm Springs, California, is a fighter in his peak.
Unbeaten in 28 fights with 12 knockouts, Bradley hasn’t been through a lot of wars unlike most of Pacquiao’s victims and could be likened to a muscle car that hasn’t been revved to the limit.
Pacquiao vs. Bradley
Loading ...