Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao: Top Storylines as Showdown Looms

Boxing fans, your week is finally here.

The biggest fight that could possibly be made in boxing, the one that is sure to be the single most important fight of a generation, is at long last actually going to happen. Undefeated welterweight Floyd Mayweather (47-0, 26 KOs) takes on perennial pound-for-pound superstar Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) in a title-unification bout for the ages.

“It's all about timing and I think we couldn't choose a better time,” Mayweather told the Associated Press. “This is a fight the world can't miss. This is an unbelievable matchup.”

The winner of the bout will net Mayweather’s Ring Magazine, WBC and WBA welterweight titles and Pacquiao’s WBO strap as well as the top prize of them all, at least historically speaking: the Transnational Rankings welterweight championship, denoting the true and lineal welterweight king.

Pacquiao also has the opportunity to claim his fifth lineal title in as many weight classes, something never before done in boxing history, per Shuttlepenboxing.com.

But in the unprecedented media blitz that is sure to make your head spin this week, what storylines should you be paying the most attention to?

Bleacher Report has you covered.

The Superfight Is Finally Going to Happen

Associated Press

Mayweather-Pacquiao is probably the biggest fight of your lifetime.

Perhaps the biggest storyline of the week is that the long-awaited bout is actually going to happen. Mayweather-Pacquiao has been the most anticipated fight in boxing since at least 2009. After years of starts and stops that mostly ended up with the two camps embittered in deadlock, Mayweather and Pacquiao finally agreed to fight each other in 2015.

Let that sink in for a second: In less than a week, Mayweather and Pacquiao will finally be standing across the ring from each other. The referee will give them pre-fight instructions. They’ll touch gloves, bounce around with nervous energy in their corners and then hurl themselves toward their destinies for three minutes at a time.

However the bout turns out—a barnburner between two all-time greats, a dominating performance by one fighter over the other or a long and boring jabbing contest between two fighters past their primes—one thing is absolutely clear.

This one fight, Mayweather-Pacquiao, will likely be the most lucrative and historically important prizefight you will ever have a chance to witness in your lifetime.

Relish the moment.

The Undercard Will Probably Be Terrible

Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Lomachenko fights on the undercard.

As is almost always the case when two megastars meet in a pay-per-view bout, especially when each man is represented by rival promotional companies, the Mayweather-Pacquiao undercard is likely to be terrible.

This one may be worse than usual, especially considering the unprecedented, bank-busting price tag fans were saddled with—and it netted them a total of three fights.

That’s right. There are two fights scheduled for the televised undercard, and both are featherweight fights featuring potential stars fans would rather see facing each other than their scheduled opponents.

According to press release by HBO, WBC junior featherweight titlist Leo Santa Cruz will take on brawler Jose Cayetano. The bout is scheduled for 10 rounds. ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael previously indicated that Santa Cruz would not defend his alphabet title May 2 but move up to featherweight instead, and that appears to be the case.

Meanwhile, WBO featherweight titleholder Vasyl Lomachenko will defend his belt against Gamalier Rodriguez in a bout that’s at least more appealing than Santa Cruz-Settoul but still a giant leap back from something the separate undercard bouts are sure to make enticing but never deliver on: Santa Cruz-Lomachenko.

In any event, no matter how good or bad the undercard might be or could have been, chances are extremely high that you wouldn’t tell your grandkids about any of it 20 years from now when they ask you about Mayweather-Pacquiao anyway.

So at least there’s that.

Floyd Is the Betting Favorite but Manny Is a Live Dog

Associated Press

Pacquiao can score the upset.

Bleacher Report’s boxing experts went on record early with their picks, picking Mayweather as the winner by a margin of 4-1. The rest of the boxing media and the betting public in general appear to have followed that trend.

Most expect Mayweather to win.

According to Odds Shark, Mayweather is the prohibitive favorite (-225 as of April 26). It’s easy to see why: Mayweather has never lost a professional prizefight. He’s the king of making in-fight adjustments, naturally larger than Pacquiao and the best counterpuncher of his era.

But Pacquiao is a live underdog. Since being knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012, Pacquiao has augmented his frenetic and aggressive style with discipline and even temperament. In fact, Pacquiao’s evolution as a prizefighter might be the very thing that gives him the best shot to win.  

While Pacquiao has never faced a fighter as skilled as Mayweather, those who heavily favor the latter to dominate Pac-Man have some equally tantalizing counterpoints to consider. Mayweather has never faced someone as athletically gifted as Pacquiao. The southpaw’s fast hands are sure to present Mayweather with problems he’s never had to solve before, and his exceptional power gives him a legitimate chance at the upset.

In short, this fight will be as good (or better) as it looks on paper. If styles truly do make fights, this superfight will live up to its pre-fight billing.

Mayweather’s Sordid Past Has a Bigger Spotlight Than Ever

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Spotlights tend to reveal more than some might want.

Hardcore fans of the sweet science typically want more mainstream attention on the sport they love. But spotlights have a way of bringing to light things in both the sport and its fighters that represent some of the worst boxing has to offer.

Mayweather-Pacquiao has brought new—and frankly needed—scrutiny on Mayweather’s well-chronicled, thanks to Deadspin’s Daniel Roberts, but often overlooked history of domestic violence, which includes two convictions.

After some urging by Deadspin's Timothy Burke, the self-proclaimed worldwide leader in sports, ESPN, ramped up its coverage of the matter to the point that ESPN personality Keith Olbermann even called for a straight boycott of the fight.

"The choices are about where we as sports fans—where we as human beings—draw the line about domestic violence in this country," said Olbermann. "I will not promote, watch nor report on Mayweather's fight. I will boycott it, and I urge you to as well."

So along with the mega-millions Mayweather will pocket Saturday night—win, lose or draw—boxing’s most famous fighter, arguably the face of the entire sport, will also leave the biggest boxing event of a generation with a good portion of society considering him an "unrepentant monster."

The Records Will Fall

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

This one will probably break all sorts of records.

It seems to be a foregone conclusion that Mayweather-Pacquiao will break all PPV and live-gate records known to man.

According to The National’s James Goyder, Mayweather-Pacquiao will “generate record-breaking revenue and obliterate a host of other records at the box office.” The same report suggests some seriously mind-boggling numbers.

The fighters are expected to earn more than any other boxers in history. Mayweather is projected to take home $180 million, while Pacquiao will nab $120 million.

Moreover, a record-shattering 4 million PPV buys are expected to occur despite the record-breaking PPV prices of $89 (SD) and $99 (HD) in the United States.

To top it all off, the bout already obliterated the previous high for money generated by sponsors, according to ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael.

What does it all mean? Easy. It means Mayweather-Pacquiao isn’t just a big deal to you. It’s not just something important to fight fans, the culmination of maybe the longest pre-fight buildup in the history of the sport.

Nope. This one’s important to everyone else, too.