Jr.-Manny Pacquiao VS Floyd Mayweather Showdown Is Finally Set

Jr.-Manny Pacquiao VS Floyd Mayweather Showdown Is Finally Set

The welterweights Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, widely considered two of the greatest boxers of their generation, have agreed to terms for a bout on May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. 

 The deal was completed on Friday after months of speculation, which began in earnest after Pacquiao’s victory against Chris Algieri on Nov. 22. They met at halftime of a Miami Heat game on Jan. 27, fueling renewed interest in the bout. The fighters were clearly aware of the public’s demand for the fight, as well as its waning patience for the two sides to come together.

 “I promised the fans we would get this done, and we did,” Mayweather wrote on the social media platform Shots. Pacquiao said in a statement: “I am very happy that Floyd Mayweather and I can give the fans the fight they have wanted for so many years.

They have waited long enough, and they deserve it.” Mayweather, who turns 38 on Tuesday, is 47-0, with 26 knockouts. Pacquiao, 36, is 57-5-2, with 38 knockouts. The fight will be broadcast as part of a joint venture between Showtime Sports, which holds the rights to Mayweather, and HBO Sports, which has Pacquiao’s rights. It will be distributed on pay per view at a fee that has yet to be determined. Details of the production for Mayweather-Pacquiao, including who the announcers will be, were not available.


 “This deal is the product of a lot of hard work,” said Stephen Espinoza, the executive vice president and general manager at Showtime Sports. But he acknowledged the difficulty in finalizing an agreement, adding that there were “blood, sweat, and tears along the way.” Espinoza said Mayweather’s World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council championships would be at stake in the unification bout, along with Pacquiao’s World Boxing Organization belt. Of more importance, though, is the unofficial title of this era’s greatest pound-for-pound fighter, which many will award to the bout’s winner. 

Showtime and HBO teamed up for the 2002 heavyweight championship match between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson. Ken Hershman, the president of HBO, said that the Lewis-Tyson deal was instrumental in the negotiations. “I think it was a real good road map for all of us,” Hershman said. “It showed that this could be done successfully.” Espinoza singled out Leslie Moonves, chief executive of CBS Corporation, whose holdings include Showtime, as being particularly instrumental in the talks. Bob Arum, the president of Top Rank Promotions, which promotes Pacquiao, agreed. “This fight never would’ve happened without him,” Arum said of Moonves.


He added that Moonves and the HBO chairman Richard Plepler were “the adults in the room.”

Jr.-Manny Pacquiao VS Floyd Mayweather Showdown Is Finally Set

The fight is expected to be the highest-grossing fight ever. Multiple reports estimated that the purse could exceed $200 million and that there would be a 60/40 split in Mayweather’s favor. “This will be the biggest event in the history of the sport,” said Mayweather. 

“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.” Early in the negotiations, representatives for other sites lobbied to stage the match. One was AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tex., which could have accommodated more than 100,000 fans. But the MGM Grand has served as something of a home to Mayweather and Pacquiao in recent years — Mayweather’s last 10 fights have been there, as have five of Pacquiao’s last seven — and it quickly became clear that the 16,800-seat arena was the only serious contender for the fight.

 Arum said that Pacquiao, in his second term as a congressman in the Philippines, planned to leave boxing by the end of 2016 and wanted this to secure his standing as one of the greatest ever. “He needed to have this fight to cement his legacy in the sport,” Arum said. “This is a fight he believes he’s going to win.”