By Rick Reeno

Based on the early indications, Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum believes the June 9th HBO pay-per-view between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley will generate more than 900,000 buys. The controversial fight generated a live gate of $8,963,180 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas - with 13,229 tickets sold. There were 2,070 unsold tickets and 925 comps given out. There was also an additional gate of $249,000 via closed circuit from 4,980 tickets sold.

When you consider Bradley's lack of name recognition with the general boxing audience, a buyrate of 900K or above would be a phenomenal figure. While Bradley was an unknown commodity before the fight, his controversial split decision victory over Pacquiao has made him one of the most talked about athletes in the sporting world. 

"First of all, the closed circuit was off the charts....the biggest Manny closed circuit ever. It drew very, very favorably with Cotto-Mayweather, so that was good. The pay-per-view, that's still being counted, but it will be anywhere between 900K and a million, which is very good - considering that we were up against the [Heat vs. Celtics] basketball game, considering that nobody knew who Bradley was. We are definitely going to do over 900K," Arum told BoxingScene.com.