Manny Pacquiao fight with Floyd Mayweather Jnr likely to be most lucrative in history

The super-fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jnr has the feel of an event on the scale of Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier or, in terms of boxing styles, Sugar Ray Leonard v Marvin Hagler.

World class: Filipino fighter Manny Pacquiao will hope to cement his place in history against Floyd Mayweather Jnr Photo: GETTY IMAGES The event, which is scheduled for March 13 next year in Las Vegas or Dallas, will also be the most important boxing event for 25 years.

The super-fight would almost certainly break the existing record of 2.4 million pay-per-view buys, which is held by Mayweather for his fight against Oscar De La Hoya in 2007.


Sport on television That match, between Mayweather, then the pound-for-pound king, and De La Hoya, the sport's most popular fighter, eclipsed the buy mark of 1.99 million, set by the 1997 Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson heavyweight championship 'ear-bite' rematch, and the revenue record of $112 million, set by the 2002 Lennox Lewis-Tyson heavyweight title fight.

Mayweather against De La Hoya made $120 million in pay-per-view revenue. Overall, with gate receipts, Pacquiao-Mayweather could creep up to the $200 million mark.

Promoter Bob Arum, of Top Rank, left Manila on Sunday, after a three-day visit in which he relayed an offer from Mayweather. Both fighters are guaranteed $25 million, before their shares in pay per view revenue.

The fight could easily gross $100 million which, if it catches fire in the mainstream, could rise to $150 million. Arum insists the boxers' signatures "are a formality", but it is not so. The venue is yet to be decided, but at least the weight is set at 147lb, and at welterweight, that suits Mayweather.

The fight pitches Pacquiao, boxing's star of the moment, against Mayweather, the bad boy unbeaten incumbent, who has permitted the rise of Pacquiao into the same stratosphere after a 21-month absence from prize fighting.

Under trainer Freddie Roach, Pacquiao has progressed from brawler to fighting machine. Pacquiao has gone from a world champion at 112lb to beating the best at 147lb, maintaining his speed and power.

Mayweather, who at 32 is two years older than Pacquiao, is still unbeaten, and is the most gifted fighter of this generation, but the templates are also set. In one corner, the cocky, brash bad boy, played by Mayweather, opposite the humble man from the shanty town in the Philippines in Pacquiao.

It is on a par with the biggest fights in history – an unbeaten future Hall of Famer, who is in the line of accession of the great slick American boxers, following Sugar Ray Leonard and Pernell Whitaker, against a Filipino idol with poiltical ambitions. Pacquiao's rags to riches tale could even elevate him from pauper to the President of a nation. It was the fight of a generation. And it had to be made.