By Rick Reeno

A little more than a year ago, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32KOs) vs. Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28KOs) was considered a mismatch by many industry insiders. Fast forward to the present, Chavez-Martinez is now a "50-50" fight in the eyes of most experts.

Chavez's strong performances in the last twelve months have cemented his growth as a fighter - and reversed some of the harsh criticism being flung in his direction. He takes a "career defining" step in the fall, when he stakes his WBC middleweight title against the boxer who is widely regarded as the number three pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

After a strong media tour, it came as no surprise that tickets were being snatched up in significant bundles.

The HBO pay-per-view main event, which takes place at the Thomas & Mack Center on September 15th, is a box office success and over 13,000 tickets were already sold. The venue can hold over 19,500 for boxing.

Top Rank's CEO, Bob Arum, is already feeling the brunt of the ticket frenzy as requests continue to pour in on a daily basis.

"We had to go back to all of the hotels who had tickets on hold, the building, and we had to say 'no more holds, you buy them or we have to put them back in the box office because we're running out of tickets,' Arum told BoxingScene.com.

"Certainly the lower bowl will be sold out completely, and if the upper bowl will have more than 500 tickets [left] - I would be shocked. It's going to be a sell-out or very, very close [to it]."

Even Arum was a little surprised with the overall strength of the early ticket sales.

"It's exceeded our expectations in the fact that it sold well in the summer, where people are away and everything. But every day we sell messes of tickets," Arum said.

The buck won't stop here. After HBO airs the Chavez-Martinez "Face Off" segment with Max Kellerman on August 25th, and the 24/7 series, which begins on September 1, ticket sales will explode even further.