#Mayweather #Pacquiao - The Fight is finally on. Floyd Mayweather Jr. will meet Manny Pacquiao on May 2 in a
welterweight showdown that will be boxing's richest fight ever.
Mayweather himself announced the bout Friday after months of
negotiations, posting a picture of the signed contract online. "I promised the fans we would get this done and we did," Mayweather said. The long anticipated bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas will almost
surely break every financial record, and make both boxers richer than
ever. Mayweather could earn $120 million or more, while Pacquiao's split
of the purse will likely be around $80 million. The fight, which matches boxing's two biggest attractions of recent
years, has been in the making for five years. It finally came together
in recent months with both fighters putting aside past differences over
various issues - including drug testing and television rights - to
reach agreement.
Pacquiao was sleeping in the Philippines when the fight was
announced, but his camp issued a statement saying the fans deserve the
long awaited fight. "It is an honor to be part of this historic event," Pacquiao said. "I
dedicate this fight to all the fans who willed this fight to happen
and, as always, to bring glory to the Philippines and my fellow
Filipinos around the world." While the fight rivals the 2002 heavyweight title bout between Lennox
Lewis and Mike Tyson for interest, it comes more than five years after
the first real effort to put the fighters together in their prime. Most
boxing observers believe both have lost some of their skills,
though
Mayweather remains a master defensive fighter and Pacquiao showed in his
last fight against Chris Algieri that he still has tremendous quickness
in his hands. Still, Pacquiao is 36 and has been through many wars in the ring. And
while Mayweather has been largely untouched in his career, he turns 38
on Tuesday.
"I am the best ever, TBE, and this fight will be another opportunity
to showcase my skills and do what I do best, which is win," Mayweather
said in his announcement. "Manny is going to try to do what 47 before
him failed to do, but he won't be successful. He will be No. 48."
Oddsmakers believe Mayweather will do just that, making him a 2 1/2-1
favorite in the scheduled 12-round bout. The fight is expected to do
record business in Nevada's legal sports books, with tens of millions
wagered on the outcome. It will also do record business at the box office - with the MGM
expected to be scaled far higher than the $20 million live gate for
Mayweather's 2013 fight with Canelo Alvarez. The pay-per-view revenue
also is expected to be a record, though television executives said
Friday they had yet to actually fix a price for people to buy the fight
at home.
The fight will be televised as a joint venture between competing
networks Showtime and HBO, which will share announcers with Jim Lampley
and Al Bernstein reportedly handling the task at ringside.
Pacquiao began pushing hard for the fight after beating Algieri in
November in Macau, and negotiations picked up last month when the two
fighters met by chance at a Miami Heat basketball game and later talked
with each other in Pacquiao's hotel room about making it happen. "It's one of those fortuitous circumstance we couldn't have planned,"
Showtime boxing chief Stephen Espinoza said. "But we were lucky that it
happened."
As part of the agreement, Mayweather insisted on having the right to
announce the bout. He also won concessions from the Pacquiao camp on who
enters the ring first, what type of gloves are used, and a number of
other issues, including a reported 60-40 split of the purse. But it didn't take long for Pacquiao's camp to start talking, either.
Promoter Bob Arum expressed his elation in making the fight, while
trainer Freddie Roach predicted a big win for his fighter. "Floyd should enjoy being the A-Side while he can because on May 2 Manny is going to put him on his backside," Roach said.
Arum, who has promoted some of the biggest fights in history, said this one would be bigger than them all.
"This boxing match will have the interest in the U.S. of a Super
Bowl," Arum told The Associated Press. "I think it will set all kinds of
pay-per-view records and gate records. It will be the biggest boxing
event of all time." Both fighters will bring 147-pound titles into the ring, but the
fight is about far more than belts. Mayweather, who is unbeaten in 47
fights, wants to stake his claim as one of the greatest fighters ever,
and remove any doubts about his legacy by fighting the boxer who is
thought to be the greatest challenge of his career.