By Charles Jay
For almost six years, boxing fans the world over have been waiting for Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao to make a deal for the sport’s biggest megafight. Now that has finally come to pass. After a lot of false alarms, these two will enter the ring with each other, and even though quite a few boxing bettors will believe it is several years too late, they will all be watching on May 2 when these “legends” square off at the MGM Grand Garden.
Mayweather is 38 years old, but he is still unbeaten, with a record of 47-0 (26 KO’s), while the 36-year-old Pacquiao is 57-5-2 with 38 KO’s.
Mayweather vs Pacquiao Betting Line
At Vietbet, Mayweather opens up as the favorite:
Floyd Mayweather -280
Manny Pacquiao +240
There has been one stumbling block or another in the way of making this fight. One issue was the random drug testing Mayweather had been demanding, which Pacquiao balked at. And Pacquiao also was not interested in accepting a lower slice of the money. But the drug testing issue has apparently been solved, and Pacquiao has agreed to a 60-40 split in favor of Mayweather.
There were a number of other contractual details that slowed up the negotiating process here, and there was also the position of the networks to consider. One has to keep in mind that fighters obligate themselves to networks for the purposes of reaping big benefits from pay per view television. And in this case, Mayweather is associated with Showtime, while Pacquiao’s allegiance is to HBO. So the two sides had to negotiate a “joint” PPV telecast as well as a settlement as to the replay rights. Not much in the way of specifics has been revealed as yet by the two television entities, other than that everything has been hammered out.
Vietbet customers have seen Pacquiao have two of his last three fights in Macau, as he won by very easy verdicts over Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri. Mayweather has fought Marcos Maidana in his last two fights; in the first one, he had trouble with Maidana’s awkward style and won a decision that was disputable in the minds of many, although the rematch was more one-sided.
Pacquiao also won a 12-round verdict last April against Timothy Bradley in a rematch of their June 2012 fight, in which Bradley won what most thought was a “gift decision.”
This fight was said to have lost its lustre after Pacquiao was knocked out cold by Juan Manuel Marquez in December of 2012, but the Filipino hero, through likability and good PR, as well as the win over Bradley, has rehabilitated himself. Still, the last three PPV totals have not been awe-inspiring for him.
No over/under on rounds has been posted at Vietbet yet, but it needs to be noted that Pacquiao has not registered a win inside the distance in any of his last nine fights, while Mayweather’s last knockout was six fights ago, against Victor Ortiz. This bout will cover welterweight (147-pound) titles as recognized by the WBC, WBA and WBO, although championship belts generally become secondary in importance when it comes to fights between the sport’s elite.
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