ESPN To Air Mayweather, Pacquiao Bouts In A Saturday Marathon Event

By Fight Sports Apr 24, 2020

Top Rank and ESPN will continue the recent trend of airing boxing fights during a time no live fights will be available. Bob Arum’s promotion is ready to entertain the masses. This comes after Premier Boxing Champions produced a whole day dedicated to classic fights, while ESPN aired both Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury bouts and the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier trilogy bouts.

Starting at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, a marathon of some of the biggest fights of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao’s careers will be showcased on ESPN programming. It will all end with the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout from 2015.

The following fights will be shown in a marathon on Saturday, April 25:

7 p.m. ET – Floyd Mayweather v. Zab Judah (4/8/06)
8 p.m. ET – Manny Pacquiao v. Juan Manuel Marquez II (3/15/08)
9 p.m. ET – Manny Pacquiao v. Miguel Cotto (11/14/09)
10 p.m. ET – Floyd Mayweather v. Manny Pacquiao (5/2/15)

Considered one of the wildest melees in boxing, the bout between Floyd Mayweather and Zab Judah was exciting, if only for the action by the corners of both men. Following an aggressive first few rounds for Judah, Mayweather stormed back and bloodied the nose of his opponent around the fifth round. The tenth round saw Judah land a low blow and a behind the head shot, forcing Roger Mayweather to enter the ring and confront Judah. Yoel Judah ended up punching Roger and both camps entered the ring. After all the chaos, Mayweather would win via unanimous decision.

Three+ years after their first fight ended in a draw, Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez once again faced off against one another. In 2008, the two competed in what Pacquiao considered one of his toughest fights to date at that time. Pacquiao ended up knocking down Marquez in the third, which helped give him the advantage for the split decision win.

Featuring a battle of two great fighters, Pacquiao fought Miguel Cotto in a seemingly one-sided affair. Pacquiao knocked Cotto down twice and outlanded him 336-172. As a result, Pacquiao ended up becoming the first seven-division world champion in boxing history.

The biggest bout on the schedule will be the highly-anticipated bout between Mayweather and Pacquiao. A fight that produced a ticket sale revenue of $72,198,500 and 4.6 million PPV buys ($410 million in revenue), the Mayweather and Pacquiao debate continues to be discussed. It was only because the fight ended up being a lackluster affair that saw Mayweather use his defense over his offense. It was also criticized after Pacquiao revealed to have suffered from a shoulder injury before the bout.