The £162 million superfight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather may never have been signed if the Filipino’s adviser Micheal Koncz had been able to book Pacquiao and his wife Jinkee on to business class flights from Miami to Los Angeles on Tuesday January 27. There were none available.
Serendipity, and not just the smoothing of egos, brought to the world’s attention the biggest fight since Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in the Seventies and Sugar Ray Leonard and 'Marvellous’ Marvin Hagler in the Eighties.
The Congressman and his wife had flown into Miami from London Heathrow on Saturday Jan 24, to judge Miss Universe the next day, having had dinner with Prince Harry on January 22, and then having met The Queen’s grandson again on the Friday morning at Kensington Palace.
By all accounts, when Harry met Manny they got on famously, leading to a second 'secret’ breakfast meeting and the British Royal has been invited ringside to the fight with Mayweather on May 2. But it was the fact that Mayweather and Pacquiao came together on Miami Heat’s basketball court on the Tuesday, with Pacquiao stranded in the east-coast city, that created the catalyst for the final push for a strand of negotiations that had been continuing since Oct 2014.
As a result, the two prizefighters were in each other’s company both on court, andlater in Manny’s Miami hotel suite.
“You could tell by their body language the meeting was very positive,” explained Koncz. “It was a business meeting, but it wasn’t tense.”
Thereafter, the two camps then continued the negotiations, with emails exchanged and paperwork arranged. Pacquiao, a born-again Christian, insists divine intervention ensured the fight will take place. “God put us together that day,” he said.
So, three weeks later, and after almost six years of verbal bumps and bruises and failed talks, Mayweather, boxing’s pound-for-pound champion, made it public on Friday afternoon, US Pacific time, that he would face Pacquiao in a Sin City ring.
The fight had been on in 2009, then off after Pacquiao refused random drug tests. In 2012 when Mayweather offered Pacquiao $40 million (£26 million) to fight him but it fell through then, too.
Finally, we are on for a blockbuster. The two welterweights will meet May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden in a fight which may not be a thriller, but which will have the tills ringing. This will break financial records at every level: pay per view, global sales and gate receipts.
This is a one-fight deal with no rematch clause. If Mayweather loses, expect a second fight, even if Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, says otherwise. Opinions easily change with such money involved.
If the unbeaten American wins, watch 'Money’ move on to fight No 49 without the Filipino. He is chasing Rocky Marciano’s record of 49 fights without a loss, and by getting there, aims to justify his self-styled tag of 'The Best Ever’.
Behind the scenes, this has been a titanic battle involving egos, self-interest and a long list of other fighters, television companies and promoters.
Pacquiao signed the deal to face Mayweather a week ago, stressing yesterday how he had signed first, and awaited the American’s signature for almost a week, with all terms agreed.
Pacquiao, who signed his half of the deal from his mansion in General Santos City, was still at his heavily-guarded gated compound in the Philippines when Mayweather broke the news on Friday.
On Wednesday, Pacquiao had learnt that his maternal grandmother had died aged 92, and he has spent several hours in the last two days visiting the coffin and praying at St Peters Chapel in the city on the island of Mindanao.
There were fears on Feb 10 that Mayweather was considering pulling out of the fight.
It may have been a bargaining position. Pacquiao was almost relieved when he announced that the fans “have waited long enough and they deserve it.”
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