Champion at the gate
Tyson's comeback fight draws a crowd
Posted: Wednesday January 27, 1999 06:41 PM
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Appeal with punch: In addition to the gate, 750,000 people watched Mike Tyson flatten Francois Botha on the pay-per-view broadcast AP |
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Mike Tyson doesn't need to be the heavyweight champion to be boxing's biggest attraction.
That was apparent Wednesday in figures released by Nevada boxing officials that showed Tyson's comeback fight against Francois Botha to be the sixth biggest live gate in state boxing history.
The Nevada Athletic Commission said 10,221 people paid full ticket prices to get into the fight at the MGM Grand hotel-casino. The fight grossed $7,051,800 for the live gate, dashing predictions by many before the bout that ticket sales would be underwhelming.
The live gate trailed only four other Tyson fights and the first Oscar De La Hoya-Julio Cesar Chavez fight for total money brought in at the gate. The biggest grossing fight in Nevada history was Tyson's infamous ear-biting of Evander Holyfield, which had a live gate of $14,277,200.
"When you compare him to anybody else, it's unbelievable," said commission executive director Marc Ratner.
Tyson's ability to draw fans to his fifth-round knockout of Botha was even more impressive because the Jan. 16 date was sandwiched in between two big Las Vegas weekends and the fight promotion was hastily put together.
Another 750,000 people paid an average of $45 to buy the pay-per-view of the fight.
With a live gate tax of 4 percent and a television tax of $50,000, Nevada earned about $330,000 in taxes on the fight.
"There's not a promoter or a fighter in the world that wouldn't love to have those type of numbers," promoter Dan Goossen said.
Much of the reason for Tyson's live gate success was because of the high ticket prices, which ranged from $200 in the upper balcony of the hotel's arena to $1,200 at ringside.
Still, the crowd in an arena that seats about 15,000 was far above what some had predicted when only a few thousand seats were sold the week before the fight. The announced attendance at the fight was 12,519, with the others getting in on reduced or complimentary tickets.
"The reports just weren't accurate leading up to the fight," Goossen said. "I'm not pointing fingers at the media, but they end up looking at the glass half empty rather than half full."
Tyson is scheduled to fight again April 24 at the MGM Grand against one of a handful of different opponents his promoters said they are still negotiating with.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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