All eyes on Vegas for Mayweather v. Pacquiao fight

The first punch hasn’t been thrown and there’s already a winner in the May 2 megafight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

Las Vegas.

The city will play host to the biggest event in boxing history, which is expected to shatter records for purse, live gate and pay-per-view buys. At the epicenter will be the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with which both fighters are very familiar and comfortable in displaying their skills.

Mayweather (47-0, 26 knockouts) has fought his last 10 fights at the Grand Garden, and 23 of his 47 professional ring appearances have been in Las Vegas. Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) has fought in Las Vegas 16 times. Eleven of those fights were at the Grand Garden.

“Like boxing fans worldwide, we’re very excited that the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight has come to fruition,” said Richard Sturm, president of entertainment and sports for MGM Resorts International.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to host this championship fight at MGM Grand, home to the sport’s biggest events. This May weekend will prove to be one of the most electric weekends Las Vegas has ever experienced.”

When Mayweather fought Robert Guerrero at the MGM Grand in 2013, the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority said the fight produced an estimated $10.7 million in nongaming economic impact. Mayweather-Pacquiao figures to do many times that number, and when gambling is included, it could be a bonanza for the casinos and sports books. The Kentucky Derby, America’s most popular horse race, also will be run that day.

“It would be safe to say this fight will be bigger than any fight ever in the city,” Las Vegas Events president Pat Christenson said. “I can’t remember a fight with the kind of buzz this one has.”

Both camps had no intention of fighting anywhere else. Offers came in from across the United States and around the world, including England and the United Arab Emirates. But Mayweather, who lives in Las Vegas, and Pacquiao, who is treated like royalty when he stays at Mandalay Bay for his fights, had no intention of going anywhere else.

“Floyd has been very vocal for quite some time where he wants to fight, and his desire has always been to deliver this fight to this great city,” Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe said Friday after Mayweather announced the fight on his social media platform Shots. “This is where Floyd lives. This is where he trains. The people of Las Vegas have always been very good to him, and this is where he wanted the biggest fight of his career to be.”

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, who lives in Las Vegas and promotes Pacquiao, said: “The truth is, no other place in the world can host an event like Las Vegas can. It has the hotels, the casinos, the restaurants and the nightclubs to host a big event.”

Last year, prior to Pacquiao’s April 12 fight against Timothy Bradley, Arum had feuded with the MGM Grand over signage on the property for Mayweather’s fight May 3 against Marcos Maidana. Don’t expect a battle with the hotel this time.

Both fighters will prepare for May 2 in their usual trappings. Mayweather, who turns 38 on Tuesday, will train at his gym off Spring Mountain Road under the guidance of his father and lead trainer Floyd Sr., while Pacquiao, 36, will head to Los Angeles in the next couple of weeks and train at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club.

Roach, who has been looking forward to this opportunity for years, said, “Floyd should enjoy being the A-side while he can because on May 2, Manny is going to put him on his backside.”

Fans who have followed both fighters’ careers might not get that inside look at their training camps as in previous fights. Neither Showtime, which normally features Mayweather in its “All-Access” reality series, nor HBO, which has had Pacquiao on its “24/7” show, disclosed any such plans for this fight. There has been talk that each network will showcase its fighter in one-hour specials on the night of the fight or possibly the night before.

“This fight has had six years of hype,” Arum said, adding there likely won’t be a traditional promotional media tour for the fight. “Why spend the money?”

Arum, a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame, has promoted some of the sport’s biggest events. But he said it’s hard to quantify what Mayweather-Pacquiao can do in comparison to say, the first Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight in 1971.

“Things were different then, much different,” Arum said. “There was no pay-per-view back then. It was closed circuit in a movie theater. There was no social media back then to promote Ali or George Foreman or any of the other great fighters so you can’t compare eras.

“To me, this fight between Manny and Floyd will be like a Super Bowl. It’s not just a fight. It’s a huge event. People from around the world are going to come to Las Vegas for this fight.”

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.