Watch : Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather final press conference

For just the second time after their fight was announced, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather went face-to-face in a press conference ahead of their May 2 bout. The two fighters showed mutual respect during the event, perhaps saving all their animosity for when they climb on top of the ring. It was perhaps fitting the final press conference ahead of the long-awaited fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao took place in the Kà theater, home to Cirque du Soleil’s longtime MGM Grand residency, considering the three-ring quality of the build-up to what’s certain to be the richest fight in the history of boxing.

Yet Wednesday’s polite exchange of remarks between the fighters belied the promotion’s circus-like atmosphere and proved typical of what’s by and large the least interesting of fight week’s well-worn rituals, the stations of the cross that mark time until the fighters climb through the ropes on Saturday night – save for one memorable moment when longtime Pacquiao promoter and legendary shade-thrower Bob Arum steered the proceedings into a proxy dick-measuring contest for network superiority.

Pacquiao was Pacquiao, humble and genial and God-fearing as ever. Mayweather was the Mayweather that’s become familiar throughout the promotion – let’s call it Floyd 3.0 – a self-assured all-time great who’s all but sworn off his trademark slander in an apparent effort to exit the sport gracefully. Anyone hoping for fireworks or even the slightest trace of ill will from Saturday’s main players was bound to be disappointed.



The event was closed to the public – leaving several hundred writers and photographers to fill out the lower bowl of the 1,950-seat theater – though several Mayweather congregants inevitably negotiated their way into the proceedings and made themselves heard.

Pacquiao’s five-minute remarks were longer than he normally speaks at these types of things. He thanked the sponsors, the media, the fans.

“It’s going to be a good fight,” said the Filipino congressman, dressed in a conservative navy blue suit jacket with no tie. “There’s a lot of questions in your minds that only God can answer for us on Saturday. I just want to mention though that everything that I have accomplished, it is God who gave me the strength. I just want to be an example and an inspiration to everybody how my life, before I became a boxer, I used to sleep in the street, starving, hungry, and now I can’t imagine the Lord raised me into this position with blessings I could never imagine. That the boy who doesn’t have food and is sleeping in the street can be raised to this level of life.”

He continued.

“Nothing personal. He’s going to do his best, I’m going to do my best on Saturday to put our name in boxing history. But the most important thing, I’m hoping that after the fight, we can have a conversation with Floyd about sharing my faith in God. We can inspire more people, especially those children who are looking to us and supporting us.”

Mayweather, dressed in head to toe in red, white and black The Money Team apparel (topped by leather baseball hat that retails for $88 in the MGM lobby), spoke for half as long and said maybe a quarter as much. He thanked the sponsors, the media, the fans. The muted, measured tones that have become his calling card over the past 10 weeks bore little resemblance to the insufferable trash talker who incinerated hundred-dollar bills in nightclubs, tweeted photos of his six-figure betting slips and collected Maybachs like they were Silly Bandz.

Notably, he thanked longtime adversaries Arum and Freddie Roach – a chief instigator throughout the promotion who’s repeatedly invoked Mayweather’s domestic-violence record – underscoring the love-thy-enemies underpinnings of his latest iteration.

“It’s time to fight now,” Mayweather said. “You guys came out here to see excitement, you guys came out here to see a great event, and I think that’s what both competitors bring to the table: excitement.

“The biggest fight in boxing history.”

It’s not the final time the fighters will meet before Saturday’s career-defining showdown. That will be Friday’s weigh-in at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, for which the promoters have taken the unprecedented step of charging $10 admission – though tickets on the secondary market were ranging from $136 to $446 on Wednesday afternoon.

So whatever theater remains in store was put on hold as Mayweather and Pacquiao – the two finest fighters of their generation – met downstage center and posed for photographs, then faced inward for a 13-second staredown that saw Pacquiao break into a wry grin midway through. As he does.

All it seems that’s left is the fight, which – though a tantalizing three days away after more than half a decade in the making – can’t arrive soon enough.

Pacquiao, Mayweather Hype Fight

The scene was something millions of sports fans thought would never happen: Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, the two best fighters in the world and boxing's two biggest stars, standing face to face, just the two of them, alone on a stage to finally announce the big fight -- one of the biggest ever. The long-awaited moment played out Wednesday afternoon at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles where, following red-carpet arrivals that made this look more like a Hollywood awards show than a boxing news conference, the fighters were introduced to more than 700 credentialed media members. That is a gigantic number for a boxing news conference. But, then again, this was not a normal boxing news conference. And it is the only joint news conference Mayweather and Pacquiao will hold to hype the fight until fight week. Then, a few days later, they will square off to unify their welterweight world titles, determine pound-for-pound supremacy and crown the king of their era on May 2 (Showtime PPV/HBO PPV) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. "I believe this is what you are waiting for since five years ago," Pacquiao said with a smile from the podium, referencing the long haul it took for the sides to finally make a deal for a fight that will easily be the richest in boxing history. "The fight is on, and we're very excited. Both of us will undergo hard training and we will do our best on May 2 to make you happy."

When Mayweather came to the podium, he was low key and soft spoken.

"It's been a long road, but we're here now," Mayweather said. "May 2, the fight of the century. It's all about the best fighting best, and Pacquiao is one of the best fighters of this era.

"Everything is about timing. I think we couldn't choose a better time. This is a fight that the world can't miss. It's an unbelievable matchup, action-packed fight. I'm in the gym working right now, dedicating myself to the sport, pushing myself to the limit because I never wanted to win a fight so bad in my life, and I'm pretty sure he is going to push himself to the limit because he wants to win it the same way I want to win it."

For more than five years, the fight has loomed as the biggest in boxing. But numerous ups and downs and contentious talks kept it from being made for years. The deal was finally signed Feb. 20, helped along by a chance meeting between the fighters at a Miami Heat basketball game in late January, and it was as though all the years of rancor and bad feelings over previous failed negotiations had never happened when the sides got together for the news conference.

The talk from the fighters and their teams -- and even rival television executives from HBO (which has a contract with Pacquiao) and Showtime (which has a deal with Mayweather), who had to make a deal for a joint pay-per-view to make the fight possible -- turned the proceedings into something of a lovefest. With the pomp and circumstance behind us after Wednesday's news conference between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao in Los Angeles, here are five things we learned, writes Brian Campbell. Story "We're family. We're all part of this boxing family," said Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, referencing the well-publicized animosity between the camps when he made his remarks from the podium.

Arum promoted Mayweather for most of his career until their acrimonious breakup in 2006, but even they shared some light moments. When Mayweather, sitting a few feet from Arum, smiled at one of his comments, he turned to Mayweather and said, "You missed me, right, Floyd?" There was plenty of discussion about how big the fight will be. Most view it as a lock to break the all-time pay-per-view buy record of 2.4 million for Mayweather's 2007 HBO PPV fight against Oscar De La Hoya and the all-time pay-per-view revenue record of $150 million set by Mayweather's 2013 fight with Canelo Alvarez on Showtime PPV. Counting all streams of revenue, many believe the fight will generate more than $400 million.

"We had [Muhammad] Ali-[Joe] Frazier, we had [Sugar Ray] Leonard-[Roberto] Duran, we had Leonard-[Marvin] Hagler, and now we have Pacquiao and Mayweather," Arum said. "This is the biggest fight of its era. It's a great event for boxing. Everybody around the world is interested in this fight -- ambassadors, senators, celebrities." "This is the super bowl of boxing," HBO Sports president Ken Hershman said. "They're the two greatest boxers of their generation. It transcends boxing for sure and it probably transcends sports." If there was any trash talk, it came from Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's Hall of Fame trainer, who was instrumental in getting the final round of negotiations going between Arum and CBS Corp. president Leslie Moonves, who oversees CBS-owned Showtime.

"I love challenges. This is the biggest challenge of my life," Roach said. "It's finally here and in front of me. I've been looking forward to this for a long, long time. We're in the fight of our lives but we're gonna kick his ass. Good luck, Floyd." Said Pacquiao, "He has a good defense but I'm not worried about that. I can easily break that defense."

Mayweather (47-0, 26 KOs), 38, of Las Vegas, who stands to earn more than $100 million, is rarely flustered by comments from his foe. Asked about the magnitude of the bout, he said simply, "It's just another fight for me. He's a guy that I can not overlook. He's a very exciting fighter. It's an intriguing matchup." Mayweather, who prides himself on his undefeated record, did bring up the fact that Pacquiao has lost before. Mayweather believes that is an advantage for him.

"One thing I do know about any sport -- when you lose, it's in your mind," Mayweather said. "If you lost once, it's in your mind. If you lost twice, it's in your mind. From day one, I was always taught to be a winner no matter what, push yourself to the limit, stay focused and be the best that you can be.

"We've faced all the top guys. I believe in my skills, I believe in myself and I believe I'm going to be victorious." The 36-year-old Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs), the Filipino legend, is the underdog but said the fight won't be his toughest.

"I don't anticipate this being the hardest fight," he said. "That would be Miguel Cotto, [Oscar] De La Hoya and [Antonio] Margarito. I knew De La Hoya was fast, and I was moving up two weight classes [to fight him]. And Cotto I knew was a very hard puncher. And Margarito hit very hard and was much bigger than me. I don't see that in Floyd Mayweather. I don't see any of that."

Both fighters said they were happy the fight had finally been made. "This is a very important fight, a big fight," Pacquiao said. "Last year, by November, I knew [the fight would happen]. I realized that it's time. I'm the one who is going to push it to make the fight happen, and it happened. That coincidence that we met in Miami, it helped a lot, a big help for this fight. [But] I knew it before that. I had faith that the fight would happen because Floyd had nowhere else to go." Pacquiao gave into numerous Mayweather demands in order to get the deal done, including giving him the lion's share of the revenue. "I agreed with what he wanted to do to make the fight happen, 40-60," Pacquiao said. Mayweather and Pacquiao both are winding down their all-time great careers, and Mayweather also said he was pleased the fight the public has wanted for so long is finally on.

"Without everyone together, we couldn't make this fight happen, so I have to be thankful we came together to give the world the fight they want to see, Mayweather-Pacquiao," he said. "May 2 is when the world stops to tune in to Mayweather-Pacquiao, the biggest fight in boxing history." They posed together before the news conference began and then posed together again when the formal portion was over. Like it had been a half-hour earlier, it was still hard to believe the fight was finally happening.

Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao, The Stare Down

Rivals Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao met face-to-face on Wednesday (Thursday morning Philippine time) in the only press conference of their superfight on May 2 in Las Vegas. Both boxers posed for the traditional stare down for the very first time which lasted almost a minute. Mayweather and Pacquiao both promised an exciting fight which is expected to generate no less than $300 million.

Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. Press Conference

Floyd Mayweather Jnr and Manny Pacquiao come face-to-face in Los Angeles on Wednesday . The meeting marks the first, and only time, the pair will square-off ahead of the weigh-in, 24 hours before their mouth-watering May 2 blockbuster bout, so it promises to be explosive. The press conference gets under way at 8.30pm (UK time) and Sportsmail will bring you live coverage so be sure to tune in. Freddie Roach (Pacquiao's trainer): 'We are in the toughest fight of our lives, we are fighting the best fighter in the world... but we are going to kick his ass.' Manny Pacquiao: 'For the fans of boxing, I believe, this is what you are waiting for since five years ago. Both of us are going to undergo hard training for this fight and we will do our best on May 2 to make you happy.' Floyd Mayweather: 'This is a fight the world can't miss, it is an unbelievable match-up. I'm in the gym working right now, dedicating myself to the sport because I've never wanted to win a fight so much in my life.' So, the boxers won't square up until the weigh-in on May 1 in Las Vegas. Until then stayed tuned as Sporstmail will bring you all the latest news, pictures and videos as we gear up to the biggest fight in boxing history.

Mayweather speaks Ellerbe acknowledges Floyd Mayweather Sr, who will train his son for the fight, but who is declining to speak at the podium. And then an emphatic introduction of: “pound for pound the greatest fighter on this planet: Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather!” “It’s all about the best fighting the best. And Pacquiao is one fo the best fighters of this era. Everything is about timing. I think we couldn’t choose a better time. Our game plan is just to be smart and take it one fight at a time, like all 47 [previous] fights. This is a fight that the world can’t miss. This is an unbelievable matchup. Action-packed fight. I’m in the gym working right now, dedicating myself to the sport. Pushing myself to the limit because I’ve never wanted to win a fight so bad in my life. And I’m pretty sure he’s going to push himself to the limit, because wants to win the same way. “One thing I do know about any sport. When you lose, it’s in your mind. If you lost once, it’s in your mind. If you lost twice, it’s in your mind. From day one, I was always taught to be a winner, no matter what. Be a winner. Push yourself to the limit. Stay focused and be the best that you can be. Stephen Espinoza, I want to thank you. Richard Sturm, I want to thank you. Bob Arum, Team Pacquiao. Because without everyone together, we couldn’t make this fight happen. So I have to be thankful for us coming together as one, so we can give the world what thay want to see: “Mayweather-Pacquiao, the biggest fight in boxing history.”

Pacquiao speaks After a long-winded introduction that touches on the ancient roots of the Filipino people, Bob Arum finally brings Manny Pacquiao to the microphone. “I believe this is what you have been waiting for since five years ago,” Pacquiao says. “The fight is on and you’re very excited. Both of us, we are going to undergo hard training for this fight. We will do our best and on May 2 to make you happy. “The most important thing ... is the name of the lord. The name of the lord will be glorified. I want to let the people know that there is a God who can raise people from nothing into something. And that’s me. I came from nothing into something.”

Roach: “We’re going to kick his ass” Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s longtime trainer, keeps it short and sweet. “I’d really like to thank everyone who made this fight happen,” the six-time Trainer of the Year says. “I love challenges. This is the biggest challenge of my life. It’s finally here, it’s finally in front of me. I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. “We are in the toughest fight of our life. We’re fighting the best fighter in the world. And we’re going to kick his ass. I’m sorry. Good luck, Floyd.”