The richest fight in boxing history: The bout behind the ring

“What the world has been waiting for has arrived.” By those words, Floyd "Money" Mayweather announced on his Twitter account what we all had expected for several years: Mayweather, still undefeated with a record of 47-0 is going to fight at MGM Las Vegas  Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao, 57-5, in what looks like being the " fight of the century". The tortured negotiations between the two fighters have taken place on and off over the last six years, but this is the closest they have come to making the bout happen

Contract agreement: It's officially on 

Beside all the efforts they put on to make sure this fight will finally happen, they've faced a lot of pressure from both promoters, TV Broadcasters and Sponsors. Indeed, a lot (a lot lot lot lot) money will be involved around the corner. The fight of the century will likely be the richest ever as well. 

Because of the large amount of information we need to fully understand the economic importance of this fight, we decide to focus our effort on three different area to provide you the best insight about the fight.

First of all, here is a breakdown of the expected numbers:

- PPV (Pay per view): The HD version of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao will cost around $100 ($90 in Standard version). An estimation of 4 million buys of HD version could generate $200 million, divided into the fighters and both HBO and Showtime.

- The fighter earnings is expected to be as bigger as ever for both fighters. According to ESPN, reports have circulated that the fighters will earn $150 million (Mayweather) and $100 million (Pacquiao), but those figures might be optimistic unless PPV buys go crazy. The fighters are more likely to earn $120 million and $80 million, respectively (see appendix 1)

- Tickets: The gate will top $40 million with all of the tickets likely to be priced somewhere between $1,000 and $4,000 with a peak estimated at roughly $7500.

- MGM Resort: MGM Area will host the fight and the economic impact for Las Vegas will turn the city around an unquestionable winner, no matter who the winner will be (see below) 

We might take into consideration how berserk could be bets when it comes to kind of fight involving great athletes like Pacquiao and Mayweather:

" This is the kind of fight that we'll take a lot of big bets, seven figures," Jay Rood, MGM vice president of race of sports, 

So, as a whole, so many zero... 

But how it actually happened? Who's involved? 

First of all, promoters play a big role in making great deal. Just a reminder: In 1999, The Sporting News listed boxing promoter Don King in its list of the 100 Most Powerful People in Sports for the 20th Century. Don King, whose net worth is $150 million (Source: www.therichest.com), is very well-know promoter, working closely with the most prominent name in boxing including Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson. . He is remembered for his promotion of the the greatest boxing fights of all time, “The Rumble in the Jungle” and the “Thrilla in Manila.

Don King, Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier

Promoter has power, and deal with his own interest, before those of the fighter. He is in charge of setting up and paying for everything involved in a boxing match and making sure all legal requirements are met at every step along the way. The promoter assumes all financial risk associated with the event. And while a promoter is going to do everything in his or her power to minimize costs, the interests of a boxer and a promoter do align in a general way in that both of them benefit from a well-publicized fight (for further information, see below the link of the "Manny" documentary, from 26'36 mn).

Then, TV broadcasters are huge in promoting those fight. HBO and Showtime, both Pacquiao and Mayweather's TV broadcasters, know very well how important could be the fight in terms of revenue and image. Regarding as the two biggest PPV stars of their generation, there is plenty of money to look at. For Showtime, It could generated generated more than 9.6 million buys and $543 million in television revenue, according to the network.

Moreover, the city of Las Vegas is still playing a great role in making this event an even impressive one. First, the MGM hotel, located next to the MGM area. According to SI, MGM Resorts recorded room prices at the MGM Grand for Friday, May 1st to $1,601 for a standard king room. By comparison, just one week earlier, the standard rate is $198. (+710%)

*"No Arrivals" means that you can't check into the hotel that day (In this case the D-Day)

With a whopping 40,714 rooms in Las Vegas, the economic impact for MGM Grand would be $40.7 million. Then, for MGM resort, owning a near monopoly and a portfolio including for instance Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, New York-New York, Monte Carlo, and City enter, and Bellagio surrounding MGM Grand is another great opportunity. For a city still struggling to recover from the financial crisis, no matter who the winners will be between them, Las Vegas is undoubtedly a winner of this event. When it is all said and done, according to some pundits, this fight could bring in as much as $400 million.

Mayweather is already ranked first in Forbes list of the world’s highest-paid athletes, while Pacquiao ranked No. 11. But no doubt that The Pacquiao-Mayweather fight will be their biggest pay day to date, which come as no surprise reading this article. Manny Pacquiao couldn't have been happier...

As usual, here is some of the most relevant website on which we could bring out useful information...

1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTrHUQBp8lc: Floyd Mayweather Documentary "30 days in May".

2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FUyRoVSwz8) : "Manny" Documentary

3) http://www.therichest.com/sports/boxing-sports/top-10-highest-grossing-pay-per-view-boxing-matches/

4) http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12357381: Mayweather- Pacquiao in figures


*Appendix 1: Pacquiao- Mayweather achievements so far (Sources: Forbes.com)

Figures	Mayweather	Pacquiao
Earnings	$105 million between June 2013-June 2014	$41,8 million, including endorsements
Purse Last Fight	$32 million	$23 million
Biggest Career Payday	$75 million	$30 million
Career Earnings	$420 million	$335 million, including endorsements
Career PPV buys	$14,2 million	$13,6 million