By Rick Reeno
MGM Grand, Las Vegas - WBC/WBA welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26KOs), and Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe, brushed off any notion that Saturday's Showtime Pay-Per-View event would be a financial failure.
Mayweather will defend his belts against former two-time welterweight champion Andre Berto.
The match has not been popular with the fans, because most of them believe there were many other opponents who were far more deserving of the opportunity.
Berto is 3-3 in his last six fights and he's listed as a 34-1 underdog at most sportsbooks along the Vegas strip.
"I just try to stay positive and keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. You live and you learn," Mayweather said.
As far as the venue, there are reportedly over 2,000 tickets still available on ticketmaster as of Tuesday. The majority of Mayweather's recent MGM events were sold out in a timely manner. At worst, a handful of tickets would be available during fight week - and even then those tickets were usually on the secondary market.
Mayweather seemed unfazed when he was asked about the event potentially being a financial failure - and quickly asked his CEO to respond.
"I don't see how having an eight figure gate is not having success. you go back and look at the whole history of all the top fights that have been in Las Vegas, all of the top fights - I don't see how there could be any rumblings [of failure] when you know you are going to have an eight figure gate," Ellerbe said.
And regarding the tickets that are still remaining?
"Normal business. If you go back and look at the history of any of our live events - when tickets go on sale, a lot of them are sold and sometimes they are sold out. It's no different from this fight and at the end of the day it's all about your bottom line, remember that," Ellerbe said.
