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Source: Francis T.J. Ochoa, inquirer.net

-- The clash of the titans is on.

Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao and undefeated American superstar Floyd Mayweather have agreed in principle to face off in a potentially record-breaking bout that is expected to gross at least $120 million, Top Rank chief Bob Arum revealed Friday.

“It’s going to be the biggest fight of all time, financially,” Arum said of the highly anticipated showdown, scheduled to take place on March 13, most likely in Las Vegas.

The richest match of all time is the Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya tiff on May 5, 2007, when the foxy “Pretty Boy” outpointed boxing’s “Golden Boy.” That match grossed $120 million (P5.58 billion) in pay-per-view sales and $19 million in gate revenues.

De La Hoya earned a record $52 million from that fight while Mayweather raked in $25 million.

Arum did not go into the details of the bout, like how much both fighters will earn and how they will split the lucrative PPV income pie.

He told reporters, however, to “freely interpret” the “smile on my face.”

Arum met with Pacquiao and his adviser Mike Koncz Friday morning to discuss the bout that American journalists have said Mayweather had given the go-signal to.

The 77-year-old promoter is flying back to the United States on Sunday to iron a few minor kinks before making an announcement.

“We went over all the points and now, I go back to the United States and sit down with the Mayweather people to finalize various minor aspects [of the fight],” said Arum, who signed a deal yesterday with ABS-CBN bigwigs that will give the broadcasting giant rights to Top Rank’s biggest fights that doesn’t include Pacquiao.

The schedule has ushered in a ripple of concern, though, as it tightens Pacquiao’s calendar too much for comfort.

Going by the routine eight-week camp that trainer Freddie Roach usually puts his prized ward through, that means Pacquiao will have to be fit to plunge into hard training around Jan. 18.

With the holidays, his birthday and the birthday of his wife all pinched in between now and the projected start of the training, Pacquiao will need to slowly work himself into shape immediately.

Mayweather was already seen at a Las Vegas gym working out for two solid hours the day after Pacquiao dethroned WBO welterweight king Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas on Nov. 14 to become the first boxer
to win world titles in as many weight classes.

In an interview with The Guardian, Roach had said that a fight with Mayweather would necessitate a 12-week training camp.

But Arum said he has been “talking to Freddie all the time” and that the trainer has no problems with the usual eight-week schedule.

The March 13 playdate will affect mostly the publicity campaign for the fight. But Arum said there will just be “one main press conference” to get things going.

But the fight hardly needs promotion.

Minutes after Pacquiao rewrote history by destroying Cotto via a 12th-round TKO, the crowd at the MGM Grand’s Garden Arena started chanting “We want Floyd,” kicking off a clamor that has snowballed with every passing day.

In fact, Arum said “everybody wants to hold this fight” and that three venues—the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the Superdome in New Orleans
and the Cowboys Stadium in Dallas—are pushing to host the fight.