President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Dana White is looking forward to one of the biggest match in the history of boxing, the battle between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, also dubbed as the ‘Fight of the Century’.
White admits he has been closely following the developments of the undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his Filipino nemesis Manny Pacquiao. The two boxing icons are scheduled to meet in the ring on 2nd May at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas. The fight which will be available on pay-per-view is expected to break viewership records.
Although, White is excited to watch the match he believes that the two should have met five years ago when both pugilists were at their prime. Nonetheless, White claims the bout has the potential to be the best fight of all time.
It is worth mentioning that the discussions between Pacquiao and Mayweather for the fight started back in 2009 till it was concluded last month. The two boxers finally agreed on terms when Olympic-style drug testing were concluded as mandatory.
Pacquiao was refusing to get the drug test done, calling it ridiculous and insulting. Meanwhile, Mayweather refused to make any compromises on this clause; thus the occurrence of the fight fell into jeopardy. All hope was lost until both the players met during a Basketball match by coincidence at Miami in February 2015. The meeting eventually led to fruitful negotiations for the much awaited bout.
“I wanted to see the fight five years ago, but that being said; I just made the call today to try to get a bunch of tickets to go to that fight. It’s the fight to go to; it’s the fight everybody’s been waiting for. I just wish we could have saw those two fight in their prime. It affects [UFC] in that I hope they do seven million buys that night. I always like to see what the ceiling is and I’m excited for that fight. I want to see it, and I hope it crushes it,” said White.
White is the biggest promoter of Mixed Martial Arts and has a mixed love-hate relationship with Boxing. However, this time round he is eagerly waiting for this bout so don’t be surprised to see him ringside.