Top Rank chief executive and veteran boxing promoter Bob Arum acknowledged that the recently concluded trilogy bout between retired eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley Jr. did "terrible" pay-per-view numbers.

Pacquiao-Bradley III, which was staged last April 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, was the Filipino pugilist final fight of his legendary boxing career. The former pound-for-pound king scored two knock downs against Bradley to go on and take a unanimous decision victory, securing a graceful exit to the sport he ruled for over a decade.

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"It will be somewhere between those numbers, 400,000 and 500,000. It's all being added up, but it will be closer to 400,000 than 500,000. Terrible," the 84-year-old Arum said.

However, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN, some "industry sources" were saying that Arum is just being sanguine and the fight may not even touch 400,000 buys, which would make it Pacquiao's worst-performing PPV event since fighting David Diaz in June 2008, a bout that generated 250,000 buys only.

"Yes, it loses money," Arum said to Rafael. "It was not one of our big successes. It happens. We're big boys. Do I feel good about it? No."

As per Arum the fight for which the main event alone cost $24 million ($20 million to Pacquiao and $4 million to Bradley), lost money.

The Harvard Law School product believes that Pacquiao's controversial remarks regarding homosexuals, combined with his May 2015 letdown against Floyd Mayweather, led to the poor numbers.

Pacquiao drew flak for his remarks that compared gays to animals, with many celebrities from the different circles of society including former NBA superstar Magic Johnson saying they will not watch the Filipino boxing icon fight again.

The controversy also cost Pacquiao his Nike contract when the shoe and apparel giant severed ties with the legendary superstar.

Floyd Mayweather Jr's retirement fight against Andre Berto also did very poorly compared to the undefeated American's previous fights. It only managed to generate around 400,000 buys on Showtime PPV last September.

Tagsmanny pacquiao, Timothy Bradley Jr., pay-per-view, Bob Arum, Top Rank, Floyd Mayweather Jr