Interest in boxing appears to wane again because of the monumental flop that the "Fight of the Century" on May 2 was. Although the bout, which took a decade to finalize, broke records in terms of guaranteed purse and pay-per-view buys, the 12 rounds of chasing around the ring by Manny Pacquiao of Floyd Mayweather Jr. disappointed boxing fans.
The backlash is the remarkably lower interest in Mayweather's last career fight on September 12 against Haitian boxer Andre Berto. One indicator it would be a flop in terms of PPV buys and views, even possibly on free TV on CBS, is the price of the Mayweather-Berto bout ticket in the secondary market.
The Chicago Tribune reports that the cheapest ticket on SeatGeek, a secondary market ticket aggregator, is $493. In contrast, the cheapest ticket in the same outlet for the Mayweather-Pacquiao match was $5,321 or more than 10 times that of "Money May's" last hurrah.
According to Chris Leyden, SeatGeek analyst, prices of lower bowl seats sell between $2,000 and $5,000, while lower floor seats sell from $4,500 to $12,000. The last price is for seats three rows from the ring. This places median ticket prices at $2,154 versus $9,037 for the May battle.
The Mayweather-Pacquiao bout sold $70 million worth of tickets, while Las Vegas Strip's revenue went up 30 percent that weekend, said Jim Murren, chief executive officer and chairman of MGM. Those astounding figures are not expected by boxing experts next month.
Despite the rock-bottom prices, AP sports columnist Tim Dahlberg advises boxing fans to "Keep the $74.95 and pass on this Mayweather fight." Dahlberg points out that for his fight in September, Mayweather handpicked Berto over Amir Khan and Keith Thurman who could actually give "Money May" a fight.
The columnist adds, "For a fighter who believes he is the best ever, it's an odd and anti-climactic way to end a career, assuming that career is actually ending."