A smiling Floyd Mayweather Jr exited the MGM Grand Garden Arena flashing a check for $100 million, the first installment of perhaps a $200 million payday from what could be the top grossing prize fight of all-time. The fight against Manny Pacquiao returned boxing to the international sporting spotlight with A-listers and high rollers ringside and millions more around the world watching on pay-per-view.

The welterweight showdown between two boxers regarded as the best of their generation, hyped mercilessly as the "Fight of the Century", failed to live up to those crushing expectations, but it did deliver an entertaining spectacle that had the capacity crowd of entertainment, sporting and business royalty on its feet roaring.

"Many have said that boxing is dead," Peter Nelson, vice president of programming for HBO Sports said. "There's an inflection point where everyone is saying the sport is in decline, and another light shines.

"I think these things are cyclical. There are moments where it looks like there's a moment of pause, and then someone else picks up steam and acquires the fascination of the fans through their charisma in the ring and out of the ring and the sport replenishes itself. It's one of the great mysteries of the sport - how the stars come to be."

More and more fight cards are popping up across the United States, offering another hint of a renaissance, but it is boxing's return to prime time television that will be the key to the sport's long term future in the United States.

Earlier this year major networks NBC, ABC and CBS signed multi-year deals with the sport.

"In order to take this sport back to any level, you have to have it on more than eight times a year on HBO and six times a year on Showtime," boxing manager and promoter Shelly Finkel said. "You got to build a fighter. Returning the game to network television is fabulous. Is Mayweather-Pacquiao getting people talking about boxing? Definitely, but they will stop talking if there's not a follow-through afterward."