The biggest showdown yet between boxing and Ultimate Fighting Championship is looming large, with word this week that a Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley superfight could go head-to-head with UFC on May 1.
Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) was originally scheduled to face Manny Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) on March 13 in what many observers felt would be the biggest pay-per-view match in history. The bout fell apart, though, following weeks of contentious contract negotiations over drug-testing policies for both fighters.
The potential bout versus Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs) opened up when Andre Berto (25-0, 19 KOs) on Monday pulled out of his Jan. 30 match versus Mosley, after several family members were killed in the deadly earthquake in Berto’s native Haiti.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, is now scheduled to meet Joshua Clottey (35-3, 20 KOs) on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.
UFC 113 at the Bell Centre in Montreal is expected to be headlined by a light heavyweight title match between champion Lyoto Machida (16-0) and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua (18-4). It will be the third year in a row UFC has held a spring event in Montreal, with the previous two cards averaging more than 21,000 fans, a live gate of $5 million and nearly 600,000 PPV buys.
Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, told ESPN.com that he has the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on hold for both May 1 and May 8 in anticipation of a Mayweather-Mosley contest.
“I know everyone is rushing to make this fight with Mosley, but I want people to know that Floyd feels awful for Berto and his family for what they and their country are going through,” Mayweather adviser Leonard Ellerbe told ESPN.com.
“That is first and foremost. But if, in fact, Shane Mosley is available, that’s the fight that Floyd would love to make. It’s no secret that Floyd has been trying to make a fight with Shane for the last 10 years . . . Floyd against Shane is the biggest fight in boxing right now that can be made.”
UFC and boxing have gone head-to-head twice before with major events.
Mayweather’s unanimous-decision victory over Juan Manuel Marquez on September 19 drew more than one million pay-per-view buys. UFC 103, headlined that night by Vitor Belfort’s knockout victory over Rich Franklin, drew an estimated 375,000 buys.
On Nov. 18, 2006, UFC 65 — headlined by Matt Hughes versus Georges St-Pierre — and an Erik Morales-Manny Pacquiao boxing match aired simultaneously. UFC generated 500,000 PPV buys, while the boxing match drew 350,000.
There is speculation, sparked largely by comments from Machida on his Twitter account, that UFC is considering moving its event to avoid this particular head-to-head showdown.
“My next fight against Shogun is scheduled for May 1st, but there is a possibility to change,” said Machida.
UFC president Dana White on Tuesday, however, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a text that “(we) are going May 1st still.”
Mayweather, a five-division champion, and Mosley, a three-division champion, have nearly crossed paths dating as far back as 1999, when Mosley was the IBF lightweight champion and Mayweather was the WBC super featherweight title holder. Recently, Mosley interrupted Mayweather’s post-fight interview in the ring following his win over Marquez and called him out.
The UFC main event is a rematch of the hotly-debated UFC 104 championship bout in which most observers — including White — felt Rua had dominated Machida and deserved to win the title. All three judges, however, gave Machida a 48-47 decision.
UFC in 2009 generated approximately 7.955 million PPV buys, breaking its previous record of 6.2 million set in 2008 and bettering any year on pay-per-view by boxing or professional wrestling.
