THE MAYWEATHER VS. PACQUIAO STORY: FINALLY IT?S ON MAY 2!
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 21 Feb 2015
Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao is a dream boxing megafight between undefeated, five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather-Pacquiao extravaganza will be the highest grossing encounter in world boxing history and it will finally push through on May 2, 2015 at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada.
The total purse is pegged at $250 million but total revenues are expected to exceed $300 million and that it is estimated to sell between 2.5 million to 3 million pay-per-view buys in the United States alone.
But misunderstanding between the two camps on the terms and conditions of the fight led to the failure of the bout to come into being since negotiations commenced in 2009. The failure of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight to happen was named Ring Magazine event of the year for 2010.
It started when Mayweather defeated Juan Manuel Marquez by lopsided unanimous decision in their encounter on September 19, 2009. After the fight, Mayweather's manager Leonard Ellerby stated that a fight with Manny Pacquiao was the "next obvious choice from a marketing standpoint." Vice President of HBO Sports Operations Mark Taffet added "they are obviously the two most marketable fighters in the world."
On November 14, 2009, Pacquiao scored a knockout victory over Miguel Cotto and his win ignited a media blitz, and the fans all over the world demanded a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.
Yahoo! Sports was able to obtain a copy of a contract sent on December 11, 2009, by Golden Boy Promotions for Mayweather to Top Rank for Pacquiao which proposed a 50-50 sharing between the sides for a fight scheduled on March 13, 2010.
Mayweather demanded that an Olympic-style drug testing would be conducted by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, including random blood and urine testing through the day of the fight. This provision started the disagreement between the two camps. On January 7, 2010, Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum declared that the fight was officially off.
On May 13, 2010, Arum announced that he had proposed a November 13, 2010 Pacquiao fight, possibly against Mayweather. Arum has even temporarily booked the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium in Texas for the superfight. However, Mayweather demanded that Pacquiao submit himself to Olympic-style random drug testing which put the fight in jeopardy.
Pacquiao agreed to submit himself to blood and urine testing until 14 days before the fight, as demanded by the Mayweather camp in the first round of negotiations. On June 30, 2010, Arum announced to the media that both camps had agreed to terms, all points of conflicts were settled, and only Mayweather's signature was lacking to seal a deal that would make each boxer earn at least $40 million each.
After terms of the treaty for the superfight were reportedly settled by the two parties, Top Rank imposed a two-week deadline for Mayweather to sign the contract. On Thursday, July 15, Pacquiao's camp gave Mayweather until midnight to sign the contract. The following day, the Top Rank website posted a countdown clock with the caption "Money Time: Mayweather's Decision."
On July 17, Arum announced that there was no advice from Mayweather's group and the deal for a November 13, 2010 fight was called off. Schaefer denied sending a contract offering a 50-50 split. Arum said that Pacquiao accepted the terms of the random drug testing, blood and urine, leading up to the fight. Michael Koncz, the advisor of Pacquiao, said that there was also no argument regarding the 50/50 purse split.
Further conflicts to the realizaion of fight surfaced when Mayweather refused a 50-50 split of earnings with Pacquiao for the fight. Pacquiao was reportedly offered a fixed purse of $40 million, with no share of the pay-per-view earnings.
Stumbling blocks continued to haunt the Superfight and Mayweather has not stopped his demands that Pacquiao be blood tested. Pacquiao filed a legal action against Pretty Boy over allegations that he used prohibited drugs.
The issue that is more pressing, though, is the money split, because Mayweather has repeatedly said he won't give 50-50 and Pacquiao at that time declared that he won't fight for anything less.
On December 12, 2014, Mayweather proposed a May 2nd, 2015 fight with Pacquiao, stating that Pacquiao had lost to both Marquez and Bradley, and that Pacquiao is "not on his level". He ended his comments with, "Lets make this fight happen for the people and for the fans. Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao. May 2nd.?
On January 27, 2015, the historic face to face meeting of Mayweather and Pacquiao happened for the first time during an NBA game between the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks at Miami. Pacquiao said they exchanged phone numbers and agreed to communicate with each other. It was later reported that the two pound-for-pound kings met at Pacquiao's hotel for about an hour to work out the pending issues of the megabout.
On February 20, 2015, Mayweather announced that the fight contract was signed and official for May 2, 2015.
Floyd Mayweather (WBC, WBA and The Ring champion) and Manny Pacquiao (WBO champion) will finally face each other in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for the welterweight championship of the world in what is billed as the biggest sporting event of all time.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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