Leonard Ellerbe said that projected gate receipts from Pacquiao-Bradley of about $8 million last Sunday — a figure confirmed by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum — pales in comparison to Mayweather’s next fight against Marcos Maidana, which has already sold tickets worth $14 million.
“People come to see Floyd Mayweather fight in big events,” Ellerbe said. “That’s why we do the kind of numbers that we do.”
Mayweather, 37, will put his perfect 45-0 record on the line against Argentina’s Marcos Maidana on May 3 in a welterweight world title clash.
Prominent advertising for Mayweather-Maidana at the MGM Grand during the week of the Pacquiao-Bradley fight incensed Arum, who went so far as to threaten never to have Pacquiao fight there again.
He derided the Mayweather-Maidana match-up as “nonsense,” no doubt further provoked by Golden Boy and Mayweather Promotions’ decision to make Maidana available to the media at the MGM Grand just hours before Pacquiao-Bradley on Saturday.
In late 2009 and early 2010, Pacquiao and Mayweather were considered the world’s top pound-for-pound fighters and record profits were expected from a showdown.
But a disagreement over pre-fight blood testing scuttled talks already complicated by the need to satisfy rival pay-per-view outlets HBO and Showtime.
Other negotiations broke down over the division of the purse, and the intervening years have brought a further chill to relations between Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions and Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions.
“It’s really hard to talk about that,” Pacquiao said. “How many years have we talked about it and it hasn’t happened?
“If he wants to fight, the fight will be on.”
Trainer Freddie Roach seems to flip-flop as to whether the bout will ever take place, saying earlier this month he thought it would if only because the pool of potential opponents for both Pacquiao and Mayweather is so small.
In the days before the Bradley fight, he seemed less optimistic, but said if it does happen it could be as a career finale for both men.
“On our side, I think Bob wants that fight to be our last fight,” Roach said.
Pacquiao looks set to clash later this year with the winner of the May 17 fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Mike Alvarado.
Pacquiao has fought Marquez four times, and was brutally knocked out by the Mexican star in their last encounter in December of 2012.
source: interaksyon.com
