CAPE TOWN ? Six years ago to the day, on 2 May 2009 Manny Pacquiao won his sixth world boxing title following a second-round knockout of Ricky Hatton.
At that point of his career, the 28-year-old Pacquiao was referred to as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. He was a poor little Filipino boy that went from nothing to something. Floyd Mayweather, on the other hand, was a 30-year-old retired boxer.
But 2 May will turn out to be a real important day in the history of this money spinning fight.
On the day of Pacquiao’s demolition of Ricky Hatton, Mayweather announced he was coming out of retirement to fight Juan Manuel Marquez. This is where the story of #MayPac finally began.
During Mayweather’s brief retirement, Pacquiao earned superstar status in much of the western world with his eighth round TKO victory over ?scar de la Hoya, for which he moved up from the lightweight to the welterweight division.
Mayweather used that moment on 2 May 2009 to trash talk the Filipino and play down his fame.
Soon, rumored negotiations between the opposing camps about a possible superfight started.
A Mayweather-Pacquiao bout at that time was expected to be the largest-grossing fight in history, in which total revenues could reach $300 million. Experts predicted the fight would sell between 2.5 million and 3 million pay-per-views in the US.
In 2010 the negotiations continued. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum spoke about a possible fight with Mayweather. But no deal could be agreed by both camps. Mayweather even announced he would be taking the rest of 2010, and possibly 2011, off, meaning the fight of the century would not happen until at least 2012.
Both fighters were beginning to reach their mid-30s and now talk of a fight was slowly disappearing. The fight we’ve all been waiting for was not going to happen.
But fast forward to 2 May 2015 and these boxers are about to break every record one can think of – not only in the boxing ring, but also in terms of revenue.
Mayweather-Pacquiao is set to generate billions in revenue. It’s the single biggest sporting event of all time – history making. But it’s now become a fight that needs to live up to all the pre-match hype. All the failed negotiations and the dope testing. It’s a story that began on 2 May and will end on 2 May.
A welterweight title fight six years in the making will finally happen. And the question can finally be answered, Manny or Floyd?
Hopefully it turns out for to be the ‘fight of the century’ we’ve all been waiting for.
