WITH still six weeks to go before his next ring date, Manny Pacquiao’s April 14 fight with Mexican Jorge Solis has generated close to half a million dollars in ticket sales.
“Our opening weekend sales nearly grossed $500,000. Not only is Manny Pacquiao boxing’s pound-for-pound most exciting fighter, he is becoming boxing’s pound-for-pound most popular superstar,” Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, told eastsideboxing.com.
Pacquiao was recently named by Ring Magazine and by US boxing writers as the Fighter of the Year for 2006.
According to the report, the record sale was the second-biggest opening weekend in San Antonio and that it surpassed Oscar dela Hoya’s title defense against David Kamau in 1997 and that of Pacquiao’s last fight in the state—an 11th round TKO of Marco Antonio Barrera in 2003.
Aside from the Pacquiao-Solis tiff, former WBC light flyweight champion Brian Viloria, who lost his last two fights, will take on Edgar Sosa for the belt, while Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, the son of the Mexican icon, will also see action in the fight.
Pacquiao, who has a 43-3-2 record, will be facing his fourth straight Mexican since beating Fahsan 3K Battery in Taguig in 2004. He had three fights with Erik Morales, and he also fought Hector Velasquez, and Oscar Larios.
Pacquiao’s three fights with Erik Morales also earned more than one million pay-per-view sales and the 18,276 tickets sales of their third fight was Las Vegas’ fifth all time.
It was in San Antonio where Pacquiao shot to boxing’s elite after he scored a sensational 11 round TKO over Barrera. (ML)
