It will be a battle of global magnitude when reigning Ring Magazine featherweight king Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales wage war to stake all the bragging marbles in a 12-round shootout on March 19 at the MGM’s Grand Garden Arena as an expected two hundred million people worldwide will get the chance to watch the fight “live” in their living rooms on fight day.
Home Box Office, which will air the fight, has revealed that over 50 million pay-per-view homes will get the chance to witness the colossal match-up, and with a conservative estimate of four persons per household, should result to a staggering 200 million people tuned in to see who between the two warriors has indeed got the rocks. That number is even a highly conservative estimate, considering that almost everyone in the Philippines and Mexico will definitely be tuned in for the bout.
“Fight fans are going to see an all-action fight from bell to bell,” promised promoter Bob Arum who, together with Murad Muhammad, is putting up the show.
“This is an exciting event and this is what professional boxing is all about,” HBO Senior Vice President of Sports Operations and pay-per-view Mark Taffet said in an interview with Fightnews. “As they did in 2004, Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao continue to participate in some of the sport’s most exciting and compelling match-ups. This should be a great event for pay-per-view boxing fans.”
Meanwhile, the Pacquiao-Morales pay-per-view telecast has a suggested retail price of $44.95 per issue.
Tickets for the fight, which are priced at $400, $300, $200, $125 and $75, not including applicable service charges and taxes, will go on sale Friday at Noon at the MGM Grand Garden Arena box office, according to Fightnews.
Pacquiao versus Morales is expected to rekindle Filipino-Mexican rivalry in boxing, and it will mark the 37th time that a Filipino takes on a Mexican great in a 12-round showdown.
The head-to-head match-up between both countries in boxing has Mexico winning 23 bouts, while the Philippines has 11 bouts in 36 previous encounters. Two bouts had ended in a draw, namely the Gerry Penalosa-Joel Zarate and Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez encounters.
