Eddie Hearn has dismissed concerns over the security requirements for Katie Taylor's homecoming - and claimed her Saturday fight night will be the biggest ever grossing event at Dublin's 3 Arena.
The Matchroom promoter insists Taylor v Chantelle Cameron is a sell-out, despite suggestions from some quarters that there are still tickets available.
"I actually spoke to the 3 Arena last night," he said. "It is the highest grossing event of all time in the 3 Arena by an absolute mile.
READ MORE: 'What a woman': Amy Broadhurst says Katie Taylor's willingness to 'die in the ring' puts her on top
"I’m not telling you how much it will gross, but it will be a lot. OK, it is considerable - over a couple of million euro."
Hearn then suggested the gross will be closer to €3m - a "huge amount more" than the takings from Taylor's victory over Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden last year.
"We've got about 8,000 tickets," he said. "Tickets were expensive. We put some back on at €1500 and the €750 obviously went slower and some were still available.
"They’ve all gone now and …in this instance you do get situations and I don’t mind talking about it, where hospitality companies buy up tickets as many as they can.
"Then someone says I’ve seen some €750 tickets around. Not our tickets.
"If someone buys them and might take a position on them thinking they can sell a €750 ticket for €1500 and then the fight week comes around and they are selling them at face value or below, that’s on them.
"These companies think they can make an upside on tickets.
"Sometimes they make a downside on the tickets, being a bit cheeky and aggressive. I like it when that happens."
There have been reports of a ring of steel put in place around the fight.
Disagreement over security costs scuppered Taylor's hopes of making her homecoming at Croke Park.
But Hearn insists that Matchroom have not flown in large numbers of extra security personnel.
"Really, I have seen some rubbish," he said. "Listen, of course, everybody in this country wants to make sure that the event goes ahead smoothly.
"So in that respect the eyes of the world are on this fight and are on Dublin. We have not really spent additional...I saw somebody say we are flying in (security). I don’t know.
"Of course we have security. We have security wherever we go.
"We've just been to Guadalajara where we had three times the security that we have in Dublin this week.
"But, at the same time, the only thing that has been different is maybe the public events have been capped a little bit.
"We would have liked to push out that a bit more. We had 5,000 ticket requests for the weigh-in but at the moment we are only allowed 300 people.
"Those talks are ongoing. Don’t forget it is the first one and the biggest one you ever had - it's bigger than the Bernard Dunne fight. So people just want to get involved.
"Everybody feels comfortable but no, there hasn’t been an excessive spend on security. It's not anything like Guadalajara.
"The thing that is off-putting is the hotel prices. We have never spent so much on hotels - I'm talking about New York, I'm talking about Vegas, I'm talking about London, I'm talking about Madrid, I'm talking about Milan."
READ NEXT:
- Rory Gallagher resigns as Derry senior football manager with immediate effect
- 'It's taking the p**s and makes me really angry' - Damien Duff on why he is ready to fight agents head on
- Daniel Wiffen on a twin track to Olympic Glory at Paris 2024
- 'What a woman': Amy Broadhurst says Katie Taylor's willingness to 'die in the ring' puts her on top
- A peek inside Conor McGregor's €3.1m Lamborghini Yacht - 'Supercar of the Sea'
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
