Floyd Mayweather’s much-hyped win over Conor McGregor failed to set a record for ticket revenue at a boxing bout.
The bout, won by Mayweather on 26 August, was expected to better ticket sales of $72.2m (£55.4m) when the American beat Manny Pacquiao in 2015.
But figures released show over 7,000 seats were empty at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, generating $55.4m (£42.5m), the second-highest boxing gate in history.
Pay-per-view television sales will be finalised in the coming days.
The bout is said to be close to bettering the 4.6m pay-per-view buys Floyd-Pacquiao generated.
The controversial August 26 fight raked in $55 414 865.79, well short of the $72 198 500 generated by Mayweather’s 2015 “Fight of the Century” against Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand.
The Floyd-McGregor bout, staged at the T-Mobile Arena, sold 13 094 tickets, well short of the venue’s 20 500capacity. The Pacquiao fight sold 16 219tickets.
A total of 137 complimentary tickets were given away for Mayweather-McGregor, won by Mayweather in a 10th-round technical knockout.
Face-value ticket prices for Mayweather-McGregor were among the most expensive in history, with cheapest seats going for $500 and the most expensive for as much as $10 000.
Although the fight failed to challenge the Pacquiao gate total, it becomes the second highest-grossing gate in Las Vegas history, surpassing the $20 million generated by Floyd’s 2013 defeat of Canelo Alvarez.
Culled from BBC Sport
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