Arum: Mayweather-Pacquiao Far Bigger Than Before

By Edward Chaykovsky

According to Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, the May 2nd mega-fight is bigger than ever before.

When Floyd Mayweather Jr. officially announced last month that he was finally facing Manny Pacquiao, a lot of experts and fighters were of the opinion that it should have happened five or six years ago.

The two sides were in deep negotiations around 2009/2010, but those discussions fell apart over the issue of drug testing.

The long wait, the continued pay-per-view exposure of both fighters, has made it a much bigger fighter and a much bigger event, says Arum.

"It'll be a tremendous, tremendous fight, and, because it took so long to make, the value of the fight has gone up tremendously. [Back then] it wouldn't have been anywhere near the level that it is now. That's my opinion. The interest and so forth. Remember, some people don't follow sports at all. And of people who follow sports, some people don't follow boxing. But they're all following this. Mayweather and Pacquiao were known names five years ago, but not the way they are today," Arum told CBS Sports.