(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/Mayweather Promotions) By Chris Williams: The May 2nd fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) and Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) was previously expected to pull in a whopping $400 million from pay-per-view and ticket sales. But now it’s expected to bring in over $500 million, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
With the cash that Mayweather and Pacquiao are going to make, they really don’t need to fight again. Mayweather could bring in close to $200 million with the money he gets from the fight. It was thought that Mayweather would originally get $120 million, and Pacquiao $80 million. But that number is going to go up if the fight pulls in over $500 million.
With that kind of money, Mayweather and Pacquiao don’t need to continue fighting. That’s not to say that they won’t keep their careers going, of course. Mayweather would still have one fight on his contract with Showtime/CBS that he’d need to finish up with before he could walk away, and I expect Mayweather to take that fight.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Mayweather back in the ring with Pacquiao for a second fight in September. I don’t know how they could resist fighting a second time if they have the chance to make the big money that they made for this fight. Pacquiao will certainly continue his boxing career, because he seems to be someone who is destined to continue fighting until he reaches his 40s.
That’s something I believe will happen with the Filipino star. He’s only 4 years away from 40 now, and I don’t think he’ll retire unless he starts getting knocked out left and right. With the match-making that his promoter Bob Arum has been doing for him, Pacquiao can easily continue to fight for another four years.
“With amount of $ Floyd & Manny will both make it wouldn’t surprise me if this is last fight for both. What else do you possibly do after? Based on all forms of revenue coming in Mayweather-Pacquiao is not only a lock to generate more than $400M it could easily surpass $500M,” Rafael said on his twitter. “The previous all-time gate record is a hair over $20M. And now Mayweather-Pacquiao will absolutely destroy it by more than 3 1/2 times. This is mind-blowing: Arum said they’ve configured MGM for Mayweather-Pacquiao & gate will now be – hold on to your hat – about $74M! Whoa! Here’s how detailed they got in Mayweather-Pacquiao contract. Arum told me they negotiated who’d pick national anthem singers. According to Arum, Pacquiao has the right to select the Philippines anthem and Mayweather gets to pick US anthem singer. Mayweather-Pacquiao.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCMpHOUoZJk
It would be interesting to know how many extra seats Arum was able to get out of the MGM Grand from the normal 16,800 for the arena. With the huge price of the tickets, they can make a bundle if they’re able to squeeze extra seats. If they make is standing room only or make the seats smaller, they could probably add a few thousand extra seats. That would bring in a little more money. The real money will be coming from the PPV sales though.
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