Who Will Win? Mayweather vs. Pacquiao

The fight that we have all been waiting for is almost upon us. Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao will finally enter the ring together on May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The much anticipated fight has been something that fans of the boxing world have desired to see happen for many years. Mayweather will put his undefeated, 47-0 record to the test against Pacquiao, who many believe is the only man who can match Mayweather pound-for-pound in the ring.

Mayweather and Pacquiao were in negotiations to fight in 2009, but disputes over contractual obligations based on the Olympic-style drug testing that Mayweather wanted caused talks to break down between the two camps. Over the next five years, it looked as though the two would finally get into the ring together but a mix of verbal defamation and continued contractual disputes kept the fight from happening. It looked as though the megafight would never take place until December 2014 when Mayweather expressed his frustration that he was not able to make the fight happen in the past and that now Pacquiao was “not on his level” after Pacquiao lost fights to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez. After being called out by the Mayweather camp, Manny Pacquiao agreed to fight Floyd Mayweather on May 2.

On February 20, the fight was made official by both parties as they were finally were able to sign a contract that seemed to be in the works for over seven years. The Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is available on Pay-Per View for a mere $99.95. The fight is expected to generate over $300 million in prize money that will be split 60/40 in favor of Mayweather. Despite the hype surrounding the fight, there is a chance that tickets will not go on sale to the public. The 1,000 tickets that were set to be available to the public have not gone on sale yet, and with the fight just over a week away, many believe that the tickets will not be available. But if tickets to the public do become available, the face value is expected to be somewhere from $1,500 to $10,000. Seats that people expect to receive, also know as “spec tickets,” are already on sale online for as high as $19,000. The same tickets that are being valued for this fight for as high as $10,000 were only valued at $75 for Mayweather’s last Vegas fight. Clearly, the expected $75 million in live ticket gate revenue and the over $300 million expected PPV revenue make the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight the most profitable in history.

Floyd Mayweather Jr., the 38 year-old from Grand Rapids, Michigan, is 47-0 with 26 knockouts (KO) in his boxing career. In 2015, Forbes listed Mayweather as the highest paid athlete in the world with a net worth of $300 million. He will matchup with the southpaw from the Philippines in Manny Pacquiao. The 36-year old is is 57-5-2 with 38 KO in his career. Without a doubt two of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world, there is a chance that this will be the greatest fight of all time. The most hyped fight in history will feature two boxers that clearly have everything to gain yet everything to lose. Two fighters that have pushed off fighting each other for almost ten years now will go into the ring to decide their legacies. Whoever wins this fight will undoubtedly be considered one of the greatest fighters in our era and possibly the one of the best of all-time. 

Who wins the boxing superfight of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao? My pick to win is Floyd Mayweather Jr. by unanimous decision. I would be extremely surprised if either of the two competitors would be able to knock out their opponent. Both of these fighters are two of the toughest guys in this sport and there is little doubt in my mind that this fight will go the distance. Mayweather will look to come out strong against Pacquiao, but early in the fight he will realize that Manny Pacquiao is an extremely worthy contender. Officially, Mayweather has only been knocked down twice in a fight but there are asterisks from his camp on both of those occasions as to why they happened. But in today’s boxing world, if anyone is to knock down Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao has the quickness and the power to do so.

The difference in this fight will be the ability of Mayweather to land more efficient punches. While Pacquiao may be able to throw more punches, Mayweather will be able to land more punches when it counts. In his last fight against Marcos Maidana, Mayweather attempted 177 power punches and was able to land 102 of them. Pacquiao was only able to land 42 percent of his power punches in his two previous fights. While May 2 has the potential to be a fight for the ages, “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather Jr. will likely cement his name alongside Muhammad Ali as one of boxing’s greats with his victory.