Floyd Mayweather announces May 2 fight with Manny Pacquiao

Floyd Mayweather announced Friday that he's agreed to a bout against Manny Pacquiao, to be staged May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Mayweather posted the announcement on the social media platform Shots.

The fight would be boxing's most anticipated in years, featuring an undefeated Mayweather (47-0, 26 KO) and one of the sport's best pound-for-pound fighters in Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KO). 

"I knew eventually it would happen, but everything takes time. Everything in life is about timing. I have a good team and I waited until the time was right. He waited until the time was right, and the two teams came together and we made the fight happen," Mayweather said to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports.

ESPN's Darren Rovell reported that the MGM Grand, which holds the world's second-most hotel rooms, is nearly sold out. He added that a room that would usually warrant $190 is on the market for $705 for fight night.

It is reported that many of the surrounding hotels have gone to two-night minimums and raised their rate drastically.

The fight will be a joint pay-per-view telecast between HBO and Showtime. The last time that the rival premium cable companies united to broadcast a fight was 2002's bout between Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis, according to Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes, who also reports it's a one-fight deal and doesn't feature a rematch for either fighter.

Brian Campbell of ESPN explained the magnitude of the fight.

Depending on your perspective, it will be the most important fight the sport has seen in 30 years (if not more) and clearly one of the biggest stories in all of sports.

Showtime announced that the fighters will meet at a weight of 147 pounds. and all three of the welterweight titles will be on the line. Mayweather holds the WBC and WBA belts, while Pacquiao is the holder of the WBO belt.

The fighters went back and forth with failed negotiations for nearly a decade, but 2015 became a year of opportunity.

Pacquiao and Mayweather seemed most open to engaging in the elusive event after meeting at half-court during a Jan. 27 Miami Heat-Milwaukee Bucks game. The pair went on to meet privately following the game to likely hash out terms of the fight.

The fight is expected to generate upwards of $250 million dollars for the combatants to split.

"I think the timing is right now because I'm a lot bigger status-wise than I was. Status-wise, I'm still growing, but I'm bigger than I was. And I'm pretty sure that Manny Pacquiao, he is bigger, too. I have a lot of fans and he has a lot of fans and the fans around the world have been anticipating the fight for a long time," Mayweather said to Yahoo Sports.

Badenhausen also announced that Mayweather will be taking 60 percent of the purse while Pacquiao will earn 40.

The pay-per-view retail cost will reportedly be in the $100 range.