Pormal nang inihayag ni WBC at WBA champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. na haharapin niya sa Mayo 2 sa Las Vegas, Nevada si WBO titlist Manny Pacquiao sa $200 milyong welterweight unification bout na pinakamalaki sa kasaysayan ng professional boxing.
Inihayag ni Mayweather ang laban kahapon sa pag-post sa social media ng nilagdaan niyang kontrata kasabay pahayag na si Pacquiao ang magiging ika-48 niyang biktima sa ibabaw ng ring.
“I promised the fans we would get this done and we did,” sabi ni Mayweather kay Tim Dahlberg ng Associated Press. “I am the best ever, TBE, and this fight will be another opportunity to showcase my skills and do what I do best, which is win, Manny is going to try to do what 47 before him failed to do, but he won’t be successful. He will be No. 48.”
Tiniyak ng mga apisyonado sa boksing na wawasakin ng sagupaan ang lahat ng record sa boksing na tulad ng gates receipts sa MGM Grand sa Las Vegas at ang pay-per-view (PPV) record na hawak din ng hambog na Amerikano.
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Para kay Pacquiao, masaya siyang nilagdaan na rin ni Mayweather ang kontrata at nangakong pipiliting magwagi para sa sambayanang Pilipino.
Sa pustahan sa Las Vegas, paborito ng oddsmakers na magwawagi si Mayweather ngunit maraming eksperto sa boksing ang naniniwalang mananalo ang kaliweteng si Pacquiao.
“It will also do record business at the box office — with the MGM expected to be scaled far higher than the $20 million live gate for Mayweather’s 2013 fight with Canelo Alvarez,” ayon sa ulat ng AP. “The pay-per-view revenue also is expected to be a record, though television executives said Friday they had yet to actually fix a price for people to buy the fight at home.”
“The fight will be televised as a joint venture between competing networks Showtime and HBO, which will share announcers with Jim Lampley and Al Bernstein reportedly handling the task at ringside,” dagdag sa ulat. “Pacquiao began pushing hard for the fight after beating Algieri in November in Macau, and negotiations picked up last month when the two fighters met by chance at a Miami Heat basketball game and later talked with each other in Pacquiao’s hotel room about making it happen.”
Bahagi ng kasunduan ng dalawang boksingero na si Mayweatehr ang pormal na maghahayag ng multi-milyong dolyar na sagupaan.
“It’s one of those fortuitous circumstance we couldn’t have planned,” sabi ni Showtime boxing chief Stephen Espinoza. “But we were lucky that it happened.”
Naniniwala naman si Top Rank big boss Bob Arum na ito ang pinakamalaking boxing match sa kasaysayan ng boksing.
“This boxing match will have the interest in the U.S. of a Super Bowl,” dagdag ni Arum.
