LAS VEGAS ? Fourteen years ago, Manny Pacquiao stepped in as a late substitute for his first fight on U.S. soil and won a world championship in the same venue where he tonight will engage the most anticipated boxing match in decades. His second fight on U.S. soil was on a Floyd Mayweather undercard in San Francisco.
Pacquiao weighed 122 pounds and escaped with an unsightly six-round technical draw only because the late Agapito Sanchez had two points deducted for low blows, while Mayweather stopped Jesus Chavez in the finale of his dominant 130-pound reign.
Pacquiao spoke hardly a word of English.
The vision of Mayweather-Pacquiao wasn’t embronyic. It was nonexistent.
Today, Pacquiao is beloved by Filipinos, and a fair share of Americans as well, who want to see him unseat the 2-1 favorite Mayweather in the most anticipated fight in decades.
“When I started in America, nobody knows me,” Pacquiao said. “But it’s really big right now because everybody’s for Manny Pacquiao. Really big changes since I came here in 2001.”
Mayweather, boxing’s unbeaten, undisputed pound-for-pound king of ability and marketability alike, figures to earn something in the range of $180 million after pay-per-view television proceeds are tallied, which is mere speculation by people who have seen nothing like this before, meaning everyone.
He has created a business model that won’t soon be replicated because it requires so many elements blending simultaneously, not the least of them a record of 47-0 (26 KOs) in 19 years of prize-fighting after a brilliant amateur career.
MLive.com previews Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao MLive.com’s David Mayo and Josh Slagter preview Saturday’s megafight, with Mayo offering his official prediction on a bout more than five years in the making. This fight will take the Grand Rapids native to more than $600 million in gross earnings — and, he expects, 48-0.
Mayweather, 38, has initiated little trash talk since announcing the fight 71 days ago, Feb. 20.
He has fought 137 times as an amateur and pro.
The fight of his life is hours away.
“People from my team will speak and say certain things, and people from his team will speak and say certain things,” Mayweather said. “And when it comes down to it, it comes down to the two fighters. That’s the deciding factor.”
Mayweather contends that Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs), a Philippines congressman who hails from General Santos City, is “just another opponent.”
Pacquiao says he wants “to do boxing fans a favor” by displacing the zero on Mayweather’s record.
It could have happened five years ago, before drug-testing protocol derailed talks for a 2010 fight, then a horrible 2012 for both men — 0-2 for Pacquiao, nine weeks of isolated custody for Mayweather after a domestic conviction — derailed it again. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will finally square off. Cory Olsen | MLive.com
Mayweather went on to a new contract from 2013-15 with Showtime, which created a new division with HBO’s Pacquiao, in addition to the rivalry between Mayweather Promotions and Top Rank Inc.
Pacquiao bounced back with three wins. Mayweather went 4-0 on Showtime and grossed close to a quarter-billion dollars doing it.
But by 2014, both had reached the point there was no one left to fight except each other. They found foils — Mayweather faced Marcos Maidana twice last year — but the dodge was ending. Back-channel talks were under way between certain members of the two teams, and excluding others who might not be as favorable to the talks, even before Mayweather-Maidana I last May.
By January, the two sides had an agreement, although Pacquiao’s advisers continued to pursue the possibility of others fights with arguments he could make just as much money.
But Jan. 27, two days after the 20th anniversary of Pacquiao’s pro debut, the big breakthrough came.
Pacquiao got stuck in Miami after judging the Miss Universe pageant because a storm wouldn’t allow him to travel to New York. It got out via reports and social media that he would attend a Miami Heat-Milwaukee Bucks basketball game. Mayweather quickly rounded up his team and flew to South Florida, where he confronted Pacquiao at halftime. They met in Pacquiao’s hotel room after the game.
“I went over to Manny and Michael Koncz (Pacquiao’s adviser), and I said, ‘Listen, I don’t know what Bob Arum is telling you guys, but it’s not true, and he’s been telling the media certain things for years that’s not true. If you take random blood and urine testing and the fight’s on an even playing field, we can make the fight happen, simple and plain.’ And that’s basically what I said,” Mayweather said of the basketball diplomacy.
With no filters, the two fighters came to a mutual understanding.
Drug testing hadn’t been an issue for years (Pacquiao regularly has undergone blood testing in recent fights). Pacquiao agreed to the 60-40 split in Mayweather’s favor.
It took the regular intervention of CBS president Leslie Moonves to keep the two parties on track, right through last week’s belated finalized contracts between the promoters and host site, but it finally happens tonight.
For 12 rounds or less, the focus of the sports world will turn to a welterweight title unification at MGM Grand Garden Arena, for the rarest of boxing matches. Manny Pacquiao has said the fans deserve to see this fight. Cory Olsen | MLive.com
Pacquiao, 36, said he feels as energized now as he would have in 2010.
“I feel no changes in my body,” he said. “I think the changes are more experience now than five years ago. The strategy, the movement are still there, the speed, the power. There are no changes.”
Mayweather, the premier boxer and counterpuncher of his generation, figures to play it carefully early while he gauges the quick left-hander’s movement and power and tries to set tempo to his liking.
It is up to Pacquiao to remain the aggressor and take away the play from the exquisite boxer, because if the majority of the fight is spent in mid-ring and/or with Pacquiao backing up, Mayweather figures to control it.
“I know I can fight,” Mayweather said. “I know I can really dish it out, because I don’t really take it too much. And I feel like if I was a reckless fighter, just a reckless fighter, didn’t care, my career would have been extremely short.”
The X-factors are power and chins.
Pacquiao is regarded as the heavier hitter but hasn’t knocked out anyone since 2009. Mayweather’s chin rarely has been tested, but when it has been, he has stood through it. A knockdown scored in a 2001 fight against Carlos Hernandez should not have been ruled as such, the referee later admitted. A 2006 moment when he got caught off balance by Zab Judah, and his glove touched the canvas as he stumbled, could have been ruled a knockdown but wasn’t.
Otherwise, Mayweather never has left his feet in a fight, pro or amateur, while Pacquiao has been knocked out three times in his five losses, most recently in 2012 by a common opponent, Juan Manuel Marquez, whom Mayweather defeated handily three years earlier. Marquez, like Mayweather, is a counterpunching specialist. He knocked Pacquiao cold with a counter right.
Two of the broad assumptions about Mayweather-Pacquiao that will be put to the test are that only Mayweather can win by decision, and only Pacquiao can win by knockout.
Watch the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao weigh-in Floyd Mayweather weighed in at 146 pounds Friday and Manny Pacquiao was 145 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Neither side is buying.
“Don’t be surprised if the Marquez thing comes up again,” said Floyd Mayweather Sr., who trains his son, alluding to a knockout victory. “That’s the fight I look at, right there. And Floyd beat Marquez 12 out of 12 rounds.”
Likewise, Freddie Roach, who trains Pacquiao, said his fighter “can outpoint him, no problem.”
Volume punching is viewed as essential for Pacquiao, for as long as he can evade the inevitable return fire from a fistic sharpshooter.
“Our focus is not only on looking for a knockout, but throwing a lot of punches in case this is a distance fight,” Pacquiao said.
Mayweather has heard it before.
“I think everybody’s game plan is to come forward and throw a lot of punches,” he said. “They think it works. It hasn’t worked out of 19 years, 47 fights. That’s been everyone’s game plan.”
Roach said he was pleased that Pacquiao asked to break down video with him for the first time in their long history together, and that they had a “perfect camp” for strategic planning.
Pacquiao agreed.
“We’re very happy because we’re not focusing on one strategy, one technique, but more than two or three strategies,” Pacquiao said. “Either way, if he wants to fight me, that’s good for me. And if he wants to be running, running like that, I mean moving around the ring, we’ve prepared for that.”
Roach said Mayweather’s lack of pre-fight bravado was puzzling and questioned whether the boxing boss is intimidated.
“I wonder if he’s going to show up, I really do,” Roach said, speaking figuratively about the kind of performance Mayweather will offer.
Floyd Mayweather plans to honor Showtime contract, fight once more While he admitted retirement is around the corner, Mayweather plans to honor his Showtime contract, which would mean one more fight in 2015. Roach also said that hearing Mayweather talk about retirement after another fight in September “is not the best thing in the world to hear from a fighter, because my guy wants to fight on and on.”
The trainer also questioned Mayweather’s ability to move for sustained periods at an age when most fighters are long since retired.
“We do have better speed and I feel we have better power,” Roach said. “We’ll be using that and we’ll use a lot of quick movements, and I don’t think he’ll be able to handle it. I don’t think his legs will be able to handle it anymore. He can’t move for 12 rounds like he used to. And Manny’s right, he can’t run for 12 rounds. The thing is, we will catch him somewhere along the way. If he wants to rest along the ropes, we will take advantage of it.”
Mayweather Sr. countered that Pacquiao isn’t as dangerous as any of the three fighters his son has beaten the last two years, Robert Guerrero, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, and Maidana twice.
“You’re going to see exactly what I’m telling you. Floyd’s going to pick him apart,” Mayweather Sr. said.
The reason they are doing it is simple: Between $400 million and $500 million in projected gross revenues, or roughly equivalent to football’s Super Bowl.
Fight revenues go into a common pool. U.S. and Canadian revenues, including live tickets, closed-circuit income, sponsorships and merchandise, plus foreign television rights, will total about $130 million, Top Rank founder Bob Arum said. In that category, live ticket sales of about $72 million are the largest source.
The biggest source of income is pay-per-view, at $89.95 suggested retail, plus $10 for high-definition viewing. If the fight does 3 million homes domestically, it could reach $300 million in pay-per-view proceeds. The records are 2.45 million homes (Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya, 2007) and $150 in proceeds (Mayweather-Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, 2013).
Cable and satellite providers will retain 30-40 percent of the pay-per-view money, depending upon contract.
After that cut, HBO and Showtime will divide 7.5 percent of the pay-per-view profits, and most of the remainder will be divided 60-40 in Mayweather’s favor, with the promoters paid through their individual arrangements with the fighters. Mayweather is self-promoted. Top Rank retains 27 percent of Pacquiao’s take.
There is one twist to the 60-40 split, according to Arum: For income between $160 million and $180 million, the winner receives 51 percent, with the loser receiving 49 percent. That provision increases Pacquiao’s take by either $1.8 million or $2.2 million, and decreases Mayweather’s accordingly, depending who wins.
Tonight, the issue changes entirely.
“It’s a war,” Mayweather Sr. said. “It’s a war between those two. I think any man would want to win the war. No one wants to lose the war.”
The king of boxing acknowledges the reason to create the event was financial.
The reason to finish it is personal.
“Once you get to a certain point,” Mayweather said, “there’s nothing you can buy no more anyway.”
