We’ve long since sworn off meaningless Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight rumors. But sometimes, where there’s smoke there’s fire, and the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight may be closer to actually being delivered and coming to fruition than ever before in the past.
According to Yahoo! Sports, Manny Pacquiao and his team have agreed to the terms of a fight against Floyd Mayweather. These terms include:
- Fight taking place on May 2nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada
- A 60/40 purse split in favor of Mayweather who could make an estimated $120 million for the fight.
- Both fighters would agree to drug testing for the fight.
- All-time high ticket prices, including $5,000 seats, to produce an estimated $40 million live gate — double the previous all-time record.
- A likely rights split between HBO and Showtime
Arum is saying (and take that for what it’s worth, which is largely nothing) that Pacquiao is ready to go, and that Mayweather’s team is in accordance with all of the details. Just not Mayweather — yet. In the same referenced article, the deal is noted as being “imminent” according to a source.
Still, the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight is about five or six years late. In the interim time, we’ve seen Pacquiao brutally knocked out cold, and lose a terrible decision, while losing his luster in other ways, such as being unable to score any knockouts in recent fights. Some would say the only reason Mayweather would now make the fight is that he knows he’d win, and fans who were formerly evenly split on the outcome would now be very, very widely favoring the undefeated Money Mayweather to win the bout.
All of that said, it’ll obviously be a monster event, and the fight of the generation, but the fight isn’t anything near what it could have been.
But, as of now, it’s just more of the same — lots of talk and lots of rumors, and nothing official. We’ll see if that changes anytime over the coming days.
