Late last night (CET), Floyd Mayweather announced that his proposed fight with Manny Pacquiao was finally a done deal and that the contracts have been signed! Finally, incredibly, the most hotly anticipated and almost mythical match=up of this generation has been signed for May 2nd, to be held at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas. Quite simply , this is THE news boxing fans have been waiting for even if,there is regret that the fight should have come much earlier. While that is of course undoubtedly correct, this fight still has absolute world wide appeal. Floyd is still unbeaten, even if at age 36 he has slowed down a touch in his last 2 fights, while Manny having been KO'd by Juan Manuel Marquez has recovered his form to make this fight still hugely appealing. It is a legacy fight, between two men desperate to cement their name in the history books as the finest of their generation and there can be no doubting the excitement that is going to be generated from this fight over the next 10 weeks will be off the charts and I for one, am thrilled having given up hope on any such fight some time ago. However in recent weeks and months, a narrative has emerged of the fight finally taking place in 2015 and so it has come to pass. The sceptic in me will believe it when he see's it but if it does indeed take place as scheduled, it could well be the most exciting sporting event of my lifetime. Bigger than Tyson vs Lewis? easily...but whether the fight actually lives up to that kind of expectation remains to be seen. I think it will though but more on that to come later. There is plenty of time for talk and this fight is going to be front page news the world over for the next 2 months, and one wonders how the hype is gonna play out. Will Floyd be respectful or will things get more heated as the unquestionable pressure of this fight intensifies the closer we get to fight night. Tv coverage is going to be huge and this is a sporting spectacle that I for one, have dreamed of for years now. I recall the commentary of Jim Lampley when Big George Foreman shocked the world to win the heavyweight title at 45; "IT HAPPENED!! IT HAPPENED" and I felt a similar kind of emotion on hearing the announcement that this fight had been finally, finally signed. It happened. It happened. From a betting perspective, I genuinely believe Pacman can win this fight and his odds of 12/5 should be snapped up immediately as they are sure to shorten in the lead up to the fight and I can envisage a scenario where this becomes a so called "pick em" fight where the difference in betting odds between the two fighters will be negligible come fight night. Floyd is 1/3 right now but I expect him to drift to something like 8/11 or 4/5 on the night, so if you like Floyd, wait til May 2nd. I will preview the fight of course in the upcoming weeks but for now, let's enjoy the fact that they finally got a deal done, a deal which sees HBO and SHOWTIME both producing and presenting the event on their respective pay per view channels. Big money is going to be made and some big hype will come our way in the upcoming weeks and to be quite frank, I am absolutely delighted that the fight of the century is only now 70 short days away. Comments are closed.
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