It looks like Top Rank Promotions and Manny Pacquiao picked the right opponent for his next fight, at least in a dollars and cents kind of way.
Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez — their fourth meeting, with Pacquiao winning two and one draw — is proving to be a big box-office draw according to the early returns.
Pacquiao-Marquez 4 sold more than 13,000 tickets during the opening weekend of sales, according to Top Rank, leaving less than 3,000 remaining for their Dec. 8 meeting at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Not shabby for a non-title fight on HBO pay-per-view (9 p.m. ET), whose lowest ticket price is $200.
“We are ecstatic with the response,” said Top Rank chairman Bob Arum.
Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs), the first-term congressman from the Philippines, has won world titles in a record eight weight classes, and Márquez (54-6-1 (39 KOs), from México City, is a four-weight division title winner.
Pacquiao, 33, is coming off his first loss in seven years, a highly controversial split decision to Timothy Bradley in June in a fight most ringside observers, along with the WBO, which sanctioned the fight, felt Pacquiao had clearly won. Pacquiao has decide4d against a rematch with Bradley, at least for now.
Marquez scored a unanimous decision victory against Serhiy Fedchenko in April in Mexico City, but that fight was at 140 pounds, seven pounds less than the maximum weight for the Dec. 9 bout.
His last meeting with Pacquiao in November ended with a controversial Pacquiao majority decision victory, which many ringside observers, as well as Marquez himself, felt the Mexican had won. Marquez, 39, was so distraught by the decision that he said right after the fight he was going to retire.
WRITTEN BY Bob Velin, USA TODAY Sports & FULL STORY HERE
