Arum, the 82-year old Top Rank founder and CEO, said Thursday that the event will be way bigger than the previous year's card in terms of attendance, publicity, pay-per-view buys, production and all-out boxing action, especially with Pacquiao trying to essay an emphatic finish for the first time since knocking down Miguel Cotto in 2009. Last November, Pacquiao fought American banger Brandon Rios in his first outing in the Asian sin city.
In fact, the world's top sports journalists are in attendance, together with a handful of international icons led by action stars Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger with a Christian choir singing the Philippines' national anthem.
According to Arum, the pay-per-view buys have already moved to close to a million, more than doubling the 475,000 buys generated by last year's Rios fight.
"This is so much bigger than last year," Arum told a handful of Manila-based reporters.
"Every New York paper is here as well as the LA Times, the Associated Press, Yahoo, ESPN, Reuters. Everybody is here to witness this fantastic show. The publicity is tremendous. People are very interested in witnessing this fight. I'm looking forward to a great promotion, a great week and an even greater result."
Arum said with the tremendous result of their promotion in this Chinese gambling resort city, they are planning to come up with more boxing shows and other activities while developing potential Asian boxers aside from Pacquiao and Zou Shiming, who will battle Kwanpichit OnesongchaiGym of Thailand in a flyweight match in one of the undercards.
According to him, the market has the ability to match, or even surpass, the income generated by boxing promotions done in the United States.
"The plan is to develop good Chinese fighters," Arum said. "It is necessary to do that to further take advantage of the good Chinese market. We have to develop Chinese contenders because the market is so good and full of potential."
"I think Macau can afford anything they want. Money is so enormous here in Macau. It dwarfs anything that can be done in the United States. The numbers here are totally crazy compared to any place in the world."
He added that they have no plan of slowing down.
"We're still working on four more events here in Macau. Three will be shown in regular Asian time and one in the morning to accommodate viewers from the United States," said Arum, who once promoted the epic clash between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.
"People here want to see a show, a complete show. And that's what we're giving. This is just the start." — STR/JST, GMA News
source: gmanetwork.com
