Fight fans, prepare to pony up for the big bout
The May 2 welterweight championship unification bout between undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao will be the most lucrative fight of all time, with revenue estimated to be $400 million or more, well over the record of $150 million.
Here are five things you need to know about the fight.
1. Tickets: If you’re looking for tickets to the biggest fight of this century, well, good luck. Initial ticket prices were announced at $7,500 for ringside seats, with nosebleeds at $1,500.
But where do you find them? There are none available on StubHub, which says it will not list them until actual tickets are printed. And as of Sunday, less than two weeks before the fight, that had not happened. About 1,000 tickets are expected to be released to the public.
Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, said he thinks only high rollers with $250,000 lines of credit at MGM Grand will get ringside seats. On the secondary market, be prepared to pay a steep markup.
At MasterTicket.Center, prices range from $6,099 per ticket for “cheap” seats to $84,088 for ringside seats.
Even the weigh-in, traditionally free, will cost $10 to see Mayweather and Pacquiao strip down to their underwear, step on the scale and scowl at each other — though organizers say all proceeds will go to charity.
2. Pay-per-view stars: The Mayweather-Pacquiao megafight is expected to break the record for pay-per-view buys with between 3 million and 4 million at $89 to $99 each. That would put Mayweather in five of the top 10 PPV fights all time, including the top three. The record is 2.48 million for his fight against Oscar De La Hoya in 2007 and followed by 2.2 million for his fight with Canelo Alvarez in 2013. Mike Tyson holds four spots in the top 10. Pacquaio’s name is missing from the top 10, though he has exceeded 1 million in PPV buys six times, the same as Mayweather.
3. Knockout power: While Mayweather and Pacquiao are ranked 1-2 on most pound-forpound lists, they aren’t in the ballpark for top knockout artists. Mayweather has knocked out 55% of his opponents and Pacquiao 59%.
Neither has registered a knockout since Mayweather’s controversial fourth-round KO of Victor Ortiz on Sept. 17, 2011. Many called it a sucker punch as Mayweather floored Ortiz while Ortiz had his head turned while he was talking to referee Joe Cortez. Pacquiao’s last knockout — besides the one when he was knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012 — came nearly six years ago, a 12th-round TKO against Miguel Cotto. That was the last of four consecutive knockouts for the Filipino superstar, the others being against De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and David Diaz. Mayweather also KO’d Hatton in 2007. De La Hoya says neither fighter has real knockout power anymore, relying more on quickness, footwork and smarts.
4. Crossing divisional lines: Both fighters started small. Mayweather’s first title was at super featherweight (130 pounds), and he has won titles all the way up to light middleweight (154). He holds welterweight and light middleweight belts. He also has won titles at lightweight and super lightweight.
Pacquiao has won titles at flyweight (112), super bantamweight (122), featherweight (126) super featherweight (130), lightweight (135), super lightweight
(140), welterweight (147) and junior middleweight (154). Pacquiao’s eight titles is a record and two better than De La Hoya’s total. The winner May 2 will be the lineal welterweight champ.
5. Favoring Floyd: Mayweather will receive a 60% revenue split, with Pacquiao getting 40%. Arum has said that on the Monday after the fight he’ll hand Pacquiao a check for $50 million — guaranteed — and that’s just a down payment. Mayweather’s initial check will be considerably bigger. Bottom line: Both will earn well over $100 million.
Per the fight contract, Mayweather’s name is mentioned first in the billing. He will walk to the ring second, be introduced second and have his choice of ring corner and locker room in the arena. And there will be no glove controversy, as Mayweather and Marcos Maidana had in their first fight. The glove type was settled in the contract.