Battle of Brisbane: Manny Pacquiao vs Jeff Horn fight becomes goldmine for fighters, local economy

The Battle of Brisbane has turned into a goldmine for Manny Pacquiao and Jeff Horn as ticket sales surge towards 50,000. Pay-per-view projections suggest that the bout is on target to outperform the preceding record for sales set by Danny Green and Anthony Mundine’s first match.

The Queensland government made huge investments to make the fight happen in Brisbane. It will also reap financial dividends as one-third of tickets were reportedly snapped up by interstate visitors, bringing millions to the local economy.

The Pacquiao-Horn match is set to make upwards of $20 million in revenue for Duco Events and Top Rank, the joint promoters. Pacquiao, the WBO welterweight champion, is set to receive a huge part of that. He will allegedly get $10 million for putting his belt on the line. Horn’s payday, on the other hand, is less than $1 million, according to The Australian.

But when Duco Events executive Dean Lonergan was asked if Horn will have his share in the rivers of gold the fight will generate, he replied by saying, “Horn is getting very well looked after,” and that he is going to come out well. He said he has no doubts Horn will become an Aussie superstar.

Battle of Brisbane

Lonergan said they have obtained their first predictors regarding what sort of pay-per-view the fight is going to do on Sunday. “Foxtel is telling us this is going to break all pay-per-view records, not only beat them but smash them," he said, adding that the Battle of Brisbane is “not only a monster event” but a “unique event in Queensland sporting history.” The match is also getting extraordinary levels of interest on television as the Queensland public shows love for world-class sports.

In the United States, the Suncorp Stadium super fight is expected to be watched by the largest television audience since Muhammad Ali fought nearly 40 years ago. Instead of the usual pay-per-view boxing major event channels, the match is beamed into America on Saturday night prime time on ESPN.

Promoter Bob Arum said at the fighters’ press conference that over 10 million fans in the US would catch the fight. The figure is comparatively bigger than the bouts of the last four decades featuring Evander Holyfield, Floyd Mayweather and Mike Tyson. That is good news for Brisbane and Queensland, which can look forward to arrival of visitors as a result of the Pacquiao-Horn fight.

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