Mayweather v. Pacquiao to bring in millions, not just for fighters

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are set to split $300 million 60/40 respectively after Saturday’s historic match, regardless of who wins. But that isn’t the only money that is going to change hands. The fight is at the MGM Grand (MGM) in Las Vegas which expects somewhere between $60 million and $80 million in betting on the fight.

Then there’s Pay-Per-View on CBS's (CBS) Showtime and Time Warner's (TWX) HBO. It will cost most people about $99 to watch the fight at home. Bars are charged $25 multiplied by their maximum occupancy to show the fight.

Rooms at the MGM Grand went for almost four times a normal Saturday night rate when the fight was announced before quickly selling out.

All this to watch what many believe will be a pretty dominant victory by Mayweather, a convicted criminal who pled out of felony charges and spent 90 days in jail.

“He has this bad record of violence against women,” explains Yahoo Finance Editor in Chief Andy Serwer. “It’s sort of this dirty little secret that people don’t talk about. [He is] accused of assaulting five different women on seven different occasions.”

“Sports fans in the moment don’t care about that,” notes Aaron Task sadly.

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Marc Lichtenfeld, a market strategist who moonlights as a boxing announcer, points out that Mayweather has embraced the role as bad boy. “He’s done some horrible things but he also markets himself as the villain. He’s done that for years and that’s another reason why this fight is so big.”

The other reason it’s so big? Boxing fans have been waiting a long time for it.

“Floyd Mayweather and Manny and all the promoters did a great job in kind of stringing the public along for four or five years waiting for this fight to happen so when it finally did the demand was so pent up,” says Lichtenfeld.

So will other sports look to the lucrative match tomorrow, all the demand for it, and the money it’s making and re-craft their own strategies?

“There’s been talk for a long time that eventually the NFL could [take the Pay-Per-View] route,” Lichtenfeld notes. “At this point boxing is still somewhat of a niche sport. I think it can get away with Pay-Per-View. I think it would be a revolt if the NFL went to Pay-Per-View.”

Still he says in ten years it’s not out of the realm of possibility that certain games in other sports could adopt the boxing model.

As for the fight itself, Lichtenfeld says he agrees with most of the boxing world - Mayweather will walk away with the win.

“Floyd Mayweather is the best fighter I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. He’s one of those fighters I’ll be telling my grandchildren about.”