Boxing icon Manny Pacquiao on May 2 fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr.: “I dedicate this 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”
by Leony R. Garcia
Suddenly, the social media is abuzz Saturday morning with the announcement of Mayweather-Pacquiao fight on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas!
Yes you read/heard it right! Floyd Mayweather Jr. will meet Manny Pacquiao on May 2 in a welterweight showdown that will be boxing’s richest fight ever.
The American champion 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,” he said.
Pacquiao was reportedly sleeping (Philippine time) 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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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 according to boxing enthusisasts. Mayweather could earn $120 million or more, while Pacquiao’s split of the purse will likely be around $80 million.
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.
“This boxing match will have the interest in the U.S. of a Super Bowl,” Promoter Bob 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.”
Most boxing observers believe both boxers 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 at 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.
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.
