Floyd Mayweather will announce at his teasing convenience that the richest fight in boxing history will take place in Las Vegas on May 2.
All that remains of the long wait for the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world to take on the pretender to that mythical title, Manny Pacquiao, is for Floyd Mayweather to confirm that it’s on at last.
Mayweather and the Filipino Pac-Man are to be paid a combined purse of $250million for answering the public demand that they finally settle their five-year argument in the ring.
That cash-crazy neon desert Strip has lit up with electric expectation that Mayweather is ready to confirm what has long seemed inevitable.
The right to tell the world is one of his many stipulations in a contract to which all parties are reliably reported to have agreed after an eternity of wrangling.
The deal now done barring a seismic tantrum by Mayweather is also believed to include a rematch clause for a second $300m extravaganza back at the MGM grand in the autumn.
The minutiae of which gloves each combatant will wear, the Olympic standard drugs testing which Mayweather has long demanded and Pacquiao’s acquiescence to a smaller share of the fortune are all included.
The two major cable networks in America—Showtime, who hold a six-fight contract with Mayweather, and Pacquiao’s paymasters HBO —have settled for both broadcasting this extraordinary event. — Daily Mail