(Photo credit: Ester Lin/Showtime) Dubbed by many as “The Fight of The Century,” the fast approaching Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao super-fight looks set to go out on Sky Sports in the U.K. British fans have been wondering where they will be able to view the richest fight in boxing and, according to Jeff Powell of The Mail, Sky Sports will exclusively show the fight in the early hours of May 3rd U.K time.
According to The Mail’s article, Frank Warren, head of boxing channel BoxNation, put in a higher upfront fee to the promoters of Pacquiao-Mayweather, but Sky has offered the promoters a substantial fee AND a share of the pay-per-view cash they will rake in from the fans. It remains to bee seen how much Sky will charge fight fans to be able to tune into the most heavily hyped boxing match of all-time, but most fans seem to be expecting the fee to be substantially more than Sky’s usual £17.99.
Sky’s previous biggest pay-per-view record was achieved by the Mayweather-Ricky Hatton fight in 2007, which attracted a massive 1.2 million U.K buys. Many experts expect the May 2nd showdown to break that record, as well as smash the U.S pay-per-view record currently held by Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya, also from 2007.
In the U.S, fans will have to part with an expected $99.99 to watch the six-years-in-the-making clash from their armchairs.
Perhaps the biggest question is, will the fight live up to the monstrous hype? Mayweather is reportedly knocking out, or stopping, sparring partners, while Pac-Man is looking fast, focused and hungry in his own preparations. Will we see the “old” Manny, full of venom and going for the ruthless finish? Or will we see master counter-punching and pot-shotting brilliance from Floyd? Which superstar has the most left to offer? Will we see a points decision and if so, can Pacquiao possibly get a fair shake from the three judges? Or will the once lethal southpaw dynamo roll back the years to the time he was halting men like Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto and make the score-cards redundant?
Many fans are hugely interested/concerned with who the referee will be on May 2nd, and whether or not the third man in the ring will prove to be a pro-Mayweather factor in the fight. Will the in-fighting be allowed or will the ref break the two fighters up at every opportunity? There are many questions leading up to this one. Let’s just hope there are no remaining questions regarding who the superior fighter is AFTER May 2nd has come and gone.
Boxing needs this one to be as special as the pre-fight media machine has been.
