By Kevin Iole
LAS VEGAS – After years of
frustration and disappointment, following many starts and stops, perhaps
the most talked about boxing match in history is finally a reality.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced
Friday that he's agreed to fight Manny Pacquiao in a welterweight bout
May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas. It's a bout the public has
been calling for since late 2009 and pits the two finest boxers of their
generation in a historic event.
"I am glad my decision to meet with Manny and discuss making this fight happen helped get the deal done," said Mayweather. "Giving the fans what they want to see is always my main focus. This will be the biggest event in the history of the sport. Boxing fans and sports fans around the world will witness greatness on May 2. 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. Manny is going to try to do what 47 before him failed to do, but he won't be successful. He will be number 48."
The bout is expected to set
numerous records, including purse size, live paid gate and pay-per-view
sales. The cost of the pay-per-view has yet to be determined and won't
be until there are deals with the distributors.
Formal details on the agreement
have yet to be announced, but it's expected that Mayweather will have a
60-40 split advantage on revenues, with Mayweather making at least $120
million and Pacquiao, who signed the contract for the bout Thursday,
earning $80 million.
"Floyd should enjoy being the A-side while he can," Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, said. "Because on May 2, Manny is going to put him on his backside."
The two nearly came to terms around the Christmas holidays in 2009, a month after Pacquiao stopped Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand. It fell apart, though, when Pacquiao and promoter Bob Arum balked at Mayweather's demand for drug testing run by the United States Anti-Doping Agency during training camp.
There were numerous attempts over the last five years to reignite the talks. In 2011, then-HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg tried to act as a mediator between Mayweather adviser Al Haymon and Arum, but that didn't come to fruition.
In 2012, Mayweather, who was in Las Vegas, called Pacquiao, who was at his home in the Philippines, and offered him a guaranteed $40 million but with no pay-per-view upside. Pacquiao declined that offer.
Mayweather jumped from HBO, which had him under an exclusive television contract for much of his career, to Showtime in 2013, which seemed to be the death knell for the fight.
Mayweather has fought four of the six fights on his record-breaking Showtime contract and didn't have an opponent out there who would have made the kind of show that would resonate with the public the way a Pacquiao fight would.
Pacquiao remains under an exclusive television deal with HBO, so that further complicated the attempts to match the fighters. Only once previously, in 2002 when Lennox Lewis (HBO) and Mike Tyson (Showtime) fought, have the two premium cable giants gotten together to do a pay-per-view.
This most recent talks began in November and were started by CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves, a longtime acquaintance of Arum's. Roach actually got them together by speaking to a friend of his who owns a Southern California pizza restaurant that Moonves frequents.
Moonves and Arum were joined in the talks by HBO CEO Richard Plepler. And while there were many false alarms along the way, they were able to get the deal done.
Arum told Yahoo Sports on Jan. 13 that Pacquiao had agreed to terms for the bout and that all that was required was for Mayweather to agree.
But because Mayweather, the pound-for-pound king and the sport's
biggest pay-per-view attraction, had the upper hand and was dictating
the terms, there was a lot of skepticism and back and forth. Several
times, Mayweather went to social media to announce that no deal had been
reached.Mayweather and Pacquiao spoke face-to-face for the first time during these negotiations Jan. 27 at
American Airlines Arena in Miami at a Heat-Milwaukee Bucks game. Pacquiao had served as a judge at the Miss Universe pageant in Miami two nights earlier, but because of bad weather on the East Coast, his flight to Los Angeles had been canceled.
As a result, he went to the game to see the Heat because he’s friends with Miami coach Erik Spoelstra. Mayweather, who owns a home in Miami, also attended the game and walked over to speak to Pacquiao at halftime.
Later, Mayweather went to Pacquiao's hotel room and they had further discussions.
That led to intense speculation of an announcement, but it took several more weeks before the deal could be consummated.
Roach told Yahoo Sports in January that he'd already gotten bleary-eyed from watching film of Mayweather and coming up with a plan.
"It's a huge challenge for Manny, no question, but I think it's a fight that he can win," Roach told Yahoo Sports.
The intrigue in the bout comes about because they are not only widely regarded as the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the world but their styles are vastly different.
Mayweather is the brilliant tactician and one of the finest defensive fighters in the sport’s history. He has an innate sense of timing and can see punches coming that others can’t.
Pacquiao, a left-hander, is a powerhouse offensive fighter who has the speed and quickness to deal with Mayweather.
"I am very happy that Floyd Mayweather and I can give the fans the fight they have wanted for so many years," said Pacquiao. "They have waited long enough and they deserve it. It is an honor to be part of this historic event. 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."
Former world champion Timothy Bradley, who has gone 1-1 in two bouts with the Filipino congressman and cultural icon, told Yahoo Sports last year that Pacquiao is an extraordinarily hard puncher.
"He hits hard, man," Bradley said. "It's a whole different level. You feel it when he hits you."
The result is the kind of boxer vs. slugger match that has long intrigued boxing fans.
And five years after it first
was talked about, it's finally a reality, and the endless debates over
who would win will be settled in the ring.
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