Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao Fight By The Numbers: A Multi-Million Dollar Event On Many Levels

The boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao on May 2 has been called the “Fight of the Century.” According to the Daily Mail, there are lots of numbers associated with this fight to determine the WBC World Welterweight Champion.

The Mayweather and Pacquiao fight is a multi-million dollar event that has been in the making for five years. The eight-division world champion Pacquiao will finally take on the five-division world champion Mayweather.

The venue for the fight is the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas with a seating capacity of 16,500, where 9,000 employees work. Over Friday and Saturday, about 100,000 people are expected at the MGM Grand. This will be Mayweather’s eleventh consecutive fight there.

Almost everything about the fight has a number attached to it, and the fight will set several records. Floyd Mayweather is 38 while Manny Pacquiao is 36. Mayweather has had 47 fights and won them all. Pacquiao’s record is 57-5-2.

Mayweather and Pacquiao will split $300 million. Mayweather will get 60 percent, and Pacquiao will get 40 percent of the purse, which is $120 million. This is a big increase from the $2 Pacquiao was paid per fight when he was growing up in the Philippines.

Only 1,500 of the 18,000 accreditation requests from the media were approved. The cost to watch the fight on closed circuit television at an MGM property is $150. The cost to watch the fight pay-per-view is $99.95 in high definition, which is a record. The $89 price for standard definition is also a record. Pay-per-views are estimated to bring in $3-$4 million, which will break the record of $2.4 million paid for Mayweather vs. De La Hoya in 2007.

Sponsors are paying $13.5 million. This breaks previous records in the $3.5-$4 million range for some other Mayweather fights, according to ESPN. The biggest sponsor for the fight is Tecate, paying $5.6 million to be the official beer.

It took only 60 seconds for the 500 tickets to be sold to the public. The cost of a ringside ticket on secondary site StubHub cost as much as $351,005.25. The expected revenue from tickets which were priced between $1,500 and $10,000 is $74 million.

The price of tickets to see the Friday weigh-in is $10. Nevada law dictates weigh-ins to be a free event, but officials made an exception this time to avoid thousands of fans from pushing to get in. Proceeds from the weigh-in will go to charity. The welterweight limit requires both fighters not to weigh over 147 pounds.

Each boxer will spend 36 minutes in the ring if the fight goes the distance. Mayweather’s knockout percentage is 55.3 percent. Pacquiao’s knockouts percentage is 66.6 percent. The average number of punches made by Mayweather per round during his career is 39, compared to Pacquiao’s 66.

Kenny Bayless, widely considered the best referee in the world, will be paid $10,000 for being the third man in the ring.

The Daily Telegraph gives more interesting numbers associated with the “Fight of the Century.” Mayweather has had only 5 fights since the last time he stopped an opponent. Pacquiao has had 9 fights since the last time he stopped an opponent.

The best odds available on Pacquiao to win the fight are 2/1. Odds on Mayweather are 6/11. If you are betting on the fight, it might be helpful to know that Pacquiao has been the better knockout fighter, but Mayweather has the undefeated record.

“Mike Tyson isn’t just backing Manny Pacquiao to defeat Floyd Mayweather in Saturday’s match, but the former undefeated heavyweight champion wants Pacquiao to knock out his ‘very small, scared’ competitor.'”

Diddy and Mark Wahlberg wagered $250,000. Diddy bet on Mayweather and Wahlberg bet on Pacquiao. Also, 50 Cent is betting $1.6 million on Mayweather. According to Fox Sports, George Foreman says Pacquiao will win by decision.

Mayweather has 5.8 million Twitter followers; Pacquiao has 1.8 million. Both boxers will be watched very closely in the ring on Saturday. Who will you be watching and betting on to win?

[Images via Getty Images]