Floyd Mayweather Jr. Vs. Andre Berto Bombs At Box Office — 2,000 Tickets Left 4 Days Before Fight
The Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Andre Berto fight scheduled for September 12 has not exactly ignited the boxing world with excitement. Mayweather has announced that the bout, his 49th, will be the final fight of his career and fans were hoping that he would put his undefeated record on the line against a world-class opponent such as Britain’s Amir Khan, or middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.
Instead, Mayweather chose the 32-year-old, 30-3 Berto as his final opponent, even though two of Berto’s three losses came against opponents in Victor Ortiz and Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero who had been beaten in one-sided fashion by Mayweather.
According to reports Tuesday, the perceived lack of buzz around the Mayweather vs. Berto bout is indeed very real. The fight is shaping up to be a box-office bust, with a reported 2,100 tickets remaining unsold just four days before the fight at the 16,800-seat MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada — the same arena where tickets for Mayweather’s May 2 fight against Manny Pacquiao sold out within one minute of going on sale.
Tickets for the Pacquiao fight were priced as much as 10 times higher than tickets for Mayweather vs. Berto, as well. The “cheap seats” for the May 2 megafight carried a face value of $1,500.
The same seats for Saturday’s fight are priced at $150.
As the Inquisitr reported earlier this week, Bert himself has blamed the slow sales on Pacquiao, saying that the once-invincible Philippines icon simply put on a dull and uninspired performance.
Berto promised to bring an all-action style to the fight.
But boxing fans are skeptical and are registering their disapproval by keeping their wallets zipped up. Even resale, or “secondary market” tickets sold on the ticket exchange site Stubhub are sharply cheaper than for the Pacquiao fight, which saw resold tickets going for more than $5,000 on average.
Secondary market tickets for Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Andre Berto have been pricing at just under $800.
While some boxing observers believe that at least some of the lack of interest may be due to fans saving their money for what they believe will be Mayweather’s “real” last fight, his 50th — a fight which, if he wins, would allow him to retire with a record undefeated 50-0 record, breaking the previous high of 49-0 set by 1950s-era heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano.
But Mayweather has cited concerns about his health to back up his claim that his announced retirement will be the real thing after what most experts believe will be an unchallenging and lopsided win over Berto.
The Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Andre Berto fight will be carried by Showtime Pay-Per-View and, at a price of $75, that is where the bulk of the fight’s revenue will come from. But if slow sales of tickets are any indication, the pay-per-view broadcast could also struggle to sell.
[Images: Frederick M. Brown / Harry How / Getty Images]
