Battle of Brisbane turns into a goldmine for Pacquiao and Horn

The fight to save Australian boxing is turning into a goldmine for the fighters and their promoters.

WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, left, and challenger Jeff Horn in Brisbane. Picture: AFP

The Battle of Brisbane — the world title bout between Jeff Horn and Manny Pacquiao — is turning into a goldmine for the fighters and their promoters as ticket sales surge towards 50,000 and pay-per-view projections indicate the bout is on target to outstrip the previous record for sales set by the first meeting of Anthony Mundine and Danny Green.

The Queensland government, who invested heavily to make the fight happen in Brisbane, are also set to reap the financial dividends after it emerged that more than one-third of tickets had been ­snapped up by interstate visitors, injecting millions into the local economy.

The fight is conservatively set to generate upwards of $20 million in revenue for the joint promoters Duco Events and Top Rank, although a large chunk of that will be directed towards WBO welterweight champion Pacquiao.

There had been reports he would receive $10m for putting his belt on the line. However, The ­Australian understands his fee will be less than that, albeit significantly more than challenger Horn will receive.

Horn’s payday is less than $1m, although the significant interest in the fight is set to result in the ­Brisbane schoolteacher earning a healthy sweetener.

“We got our first predictors through yesterday about what sort of pay-per-view this is going to do on Sunday,” Duco Events executive Dean Lonergan said.

“Foxtel is telling us this is going to break all pay-per-view records — not only beat them but smash them. This is not only a monster event — we are on 47,000 tickets now heading towards 50,000 — but also on TV is getting unprecedented levels of interest.

“This is a unique event in Queensland sporting history. We have got one of the all-time greats of boxing — of global sport — turning up to fight a Queensland guy.”

Asked whether Horn would share in the rivers of gold that will flow from the fight, Lonergan said: “It is fair to say Jeff Horn is getting very well looked after.

“At the back end of this he is going to come out well. And if Jeff does what I think Jeff can do, the way is going to be paved with gold for the rest of his life.”

Horn will head into the fight as a massive underdog but that hasn’t stopped he, Lonergan or his ­trainer Glenn Rushton outlining plans to eventually unify the welterweight division.

Pacquiao currently holds the WBO title while the WBC and WBA belts are in the hands of American Keith Thurman. The IBF champion is Errol Spence Jr, who like Horn fought at the 2012 London Olympics.

Pacquiao is guaranteed a rematch should Horn pull off an upset, but beyond that the world is potentially Horn’s oyster. Asked whether he saw an avenue for Horn to break into the overseas market should he win and win well on Sunday — the fight will be beamed direct into American homes on ESPN — Lonergan indicated they would continue attempting to lure the world’s best to Australia.

“Right now we have the second-biggest fight in the world by way of people coming through the gate,” Lonergan said. “I have no doubt come July 2, Jeff Horn is going to become an Australian superstar.

“We have one of the biggest fights in the world in our backyard. If we can do that with Manny Pacquiao, why couldn’t we do it worth Tim Bradley, with a Jessie Vargas, with an Errol Spence Jr, maybe one day with a Terence Crawford.

“The Queensland public has shown they absolutely love world-class sports, they absolutely love a blue, and we’re putting them both on at the same time.”