Over 70 Percent Tickets Sold For Pacquiao-Matthysse Fight

KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 (Bernama) -- More than 70 per cent of tickets for the 'Fight of Champions' between Philippines boxing legend Manny Pacquiao and Lucas Matthysse has been sold as of Wednesday. MP Promotions Business Head, Arnold Vegafria hoped the remaining tickets would be sold in the next few days for the July 15 showdown at the Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil, here as the organisers planned to offer discounts. "The VVIP and VIP tickets have already been sold out, while the platinum tickets are almost sold out. With about 10 days to go, we hope we can sell the remaining tickets by offering special discounts. "This will be one of the biggest fights in Asia, as both are champions and are aggressive fighters," he told a press conference after a meeting with Youth and Sports Ministry officials here, Thursday. The ticket price for the event, where the 'Pacman' would challenge Argentinean Matthysse for the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) Welterweight title, ranged from RM488 to RM19,888 and available at mytickets.asia. Arnold said viewers from all over the world could view the fight, scheduled to start after 11.30 am (main event) next Sunday through pay-per-view, free television or one-time password (OTP) viewing on the internet. "Malaysians can watch the fight through the pay-per-view basics in Astro. We will also negotiate with RTM (Radio Television Malaysia) to broadcast it for free...We will see how it goes,. We are also expecting more than 80 local and international media personnel to cover the event," he said. Commenting on Pacquiao's new coach Restituto 'Buboy' Fernandez, Arnold said the partnership between the lifetime friends looked promising, after the 'Pacman' parted ways with Freddie Roach, who coached him since 2002 (until his last fight in 2017). "Pacquiao wanted to give a chance to Buboy, because he does not know how many times he will fight after this. Their combination looks good with difference in style, strategy and techniques," he added. -- BERNAMA