Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will come together Wednesday in Los Angeles to officially announce the 12-round superfight that boxing fans have demanded for years.
It will be their only meeting in person until the week of the fight, which takes place on May 2 in Las Vegas and is expected to easily be the most lucrative of all time.
Here are answers to some key questions surrounding the bout:
Why now?
The short answer is that both men are in the twilight of their careers, with few galvanizing opponents available, and certainly no one who can offer them anything close to the money they'll make facing each other.
The 36-year-old Pacquiao, in particular, has few options left, being on the outside of a rapidly growing army of fighters controlled by silent power broker Al Haymon. Mayweather, 38, signed a six-fight deal in 2013 with Showtime, part of CBS Corp. When skeptics believed this bout was dead in the water, I always contended that CBS president Les Moonves, a boxing fan, wouldn't do such a deal without a bout or two against a viable Pacquiao being part of the package.
If you want to believe the feel-good story that a Hollywood waiter who knows both Moonves and Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach helped light a spark, terrific.
About that money: How much?
There's no way of really knowing until the viewership numbers from a joint pay-per-view produced by HBO and Showtime are in, and even that would be estimating. Multiple reports suggest Mayweather could earn upwards of $120 million US, with Pacquiao taking around $80 million.
That means the HD pay-per-view price in Canada will likely cost upwards of $100, so gather lots of friends or even people you barely know.
Isn't this bout 5 years too late?
Did you turn off the Super Bowl because Tom Brady was 37? These are two of the greatest athletes in all of sports in the last decade. Mayweather is still the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and Pacquiao ranks anywhere from second to fifth, depending on who you ask.
There's no doubt it would have been sublime in early 2010 to see Mayweather at the peak of his Matrix-like defensive game face Pacquiao at his most dynamic offensively. The sense of anticipation seconds before the opening bell would have been unmatched, certainly not by this edition of the bout and maybe ever in boxing. But with brilliance can come dominance. There was probably a better chance back then of a one-sided result — either a Mayweather clinic or a Pacquiao steamroll. The fact that both men are easier to hit these days increases the chances of an entertaining, close bout.
Who's favoured?
Mayweather opened as a 2.5-to-1 favourite or slightly better, but a lot of early money came in on Pacquiao. Now you can probably get your money back plus half on Mayweather if he wins. Legendary bookmaker Jimmy Vaccaro, the only guy in Vegas to offer a line on the seemingly uncompetitive fight between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas 25 years ago, told the Associated Press last week his shop faces well into a six-figure loss if Pacquiao wins.
How is the Filipino icon rated so highly by pundits and bettors when he's 2-3 in his last five fights? Outside of Tim Bradley's family, no one believes the American deserved the decision in their 2012 fight. And Pacquiao avenged that defeat last year in hard-fought but clear fashion. Yes, Pacquiao inspired an internet meme with his shocking faceplant two-and-a-half years ago against Juan Manuel Marquez, but Marquez is an all-time great himself who looked suspiciously jacked up after working with admitted track doper Memo Heredia as trainer, and Pacquiao was winning that thrilling war until he got sloppy and literally jumped into a Marquez power punch. While Mayweather throws stinging punches, one-shot knockouts aren't his stock and trade.
Will this fight save boxing?
A card this past Saturday night on NBC averaged a 3.4 rating in the U.S. The week before in the same slot, two major-market NHL teams (New York and Philadelphia) drew a 1.0. Does hockey need saving?
If you're in English Canada or a Caucasian under 34, boxing may be dead to you. The sport has many problems and will never be more than niche in North America, but it has some or much popularity on all six continents. Among other sports, that claim could only be made of soccer and perhaps basketball. As long as there's desperate poverty and people who like watching fistfights (i.e. the human race exists) boxing will be around. In fact, during the so-called heyday of the sport around these parts, Soviet, Cuban and Chinese fighters didn't fight professionally. They do now.
Mayweather-Pacquiao won't permanently elevate boxing's popularity in North America unless more sportswriters decide they're going to cover the sport again. Bouts on free TV could help, and four new broadcast deals (including ones with CBS and NBC) could have more of a long-term effect for the future of boxing, good or bad, than just one superfight. So too will the empire building of the anti-Dana White, Haymon, and the jury is out on whether that development augurs well for the sport.
As for this fight, a controversy or bad decision could reinforce preconceived negative feelings about the sport and drive away more on-the-fence fans away. But if the two fighters deliver the goods, many will be reminded that nothing in sports builds anticipation and suspense like a big fight.
Who's going to win?
Easy there. We've waited this long, so let's not get ahead of ourselves. We'll revisit the matchup when both combatants get through training camp unscathed and are in Vegas on fight week.
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