Arum: Pacquiao-Bradley 3 PPV a flop

MANILA, Philippines - Top Rank Inc. chief Bob Arum said they lost money in promoting the third fight between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley last April 9 in Las Vegas.

According to a report by ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael, the fight is expected to have sold between 400,000 and 500,000 pay-per-view units through HBO, a figure that Arum dubbed as “terrible”.

“It will be somewhere between those numbers, 400,000 and 500,000. It’s all being added up, but it will be closer to 400,000 than 500,000. Terrible,” said the veteran promoter.

In effect, Arum said the promotion lost money, with the main event costing a total of $24 million – $20 million to Pacquiao and $4 million to Bradley.

“Yes, it loses money. It was not one of our big successes,” Arum said.

The Top Rank boss cited two main reasons for the promotion’s financial failure – Pacquiao’s lackluster outing in a loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year, and more significantly, the Filipino icon’s recent controversial remarks on same-sex relations.

“Certainly the pushback from Manny’s gay remarks killed us. It hurt us a lot. But I think it was also less a reaction to the match than a reaction to the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight,” Arum explained.

Pacquiao announced his retirement after defeating Bradley via unanimous decision, although the boxer is non-committal whether he’ll indeed stay retired. Whether he’ll try to bounce back with a more marketable fight or stay contented with the poor figures of his last bout with Bradley remains to be seen.

Arum, for his part, said such financial setbacks are normal in the business of boxing promotion.

“It happens. We’re big boys. Do I feel good about it? No,” he said.