Staples’ Auction of Tickets to Fight Isn’t a Knockout

Staples Center’s idea to auction off some of its choicest ringside seats for the upcoming Lennox Lewis-Kirk Johnson heavy- weight fight got a split decision from boxing fans.

Customers bid on 164 of the 300 prime tickets that Staples put up for sale online in an effort to circumvent scalpers and boost its revenue, arena executives said Monday.

The top bid for a pair of tickets to the June 21 bout was $5,500, with the opening bid at $3,000, Staples spokesman Michael Roth said. The price includes valet parking and access to pre- and post-fight events.

Staples declined to disclose the total revenue from the weeklong auction that ended Friday.

“We were very pleased with the overall success of the online auction based on the number of page hits and the bidding that was going on throughout the week,” Roth said, noting the auction site through Ticketmaster collected 125,000 hits.