WHEN 10,000 people are willing to queue under the desert sun for hours on the hottest day of the year just to see two guys get up on a weighing scales, you know that this is no normal fight.
Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao last night weighed in for their unification bantamweight showdown as temperatures soared in Las Vegas. The two finest pound-for-pound punchers of their generation climbed aboard the scales in front of a fevered crowd as over 10,000 people packed out the MGM Grand Garden Arena on the eve of battle.
Punters paid $10 a head for the privilege with all proceeds going to charity in a brief break from the relentless profiteering surrounding a meeting that has been six long years in the making. Tonight's fight is scheduled to rake in well over $500 million as pay per view records continued to tumble.
But the focus now is whether the fight's most eye-catching record - Mayweather's blemish-free mark of 47 fights and 48 wins - will also fall victim. All week Philippine phenomenon Pacquiao has stood out as the more confident and upbeat of the two men, his master trainer Freddie Roach only adding to the positive wave that after tracking Mayweather for so long, his fighter will ensure that the chase was worth.
"This is one of the most important fights for my boxing legacy," said Pacquiao, who has tasted defeat five times in a fairytale career. "I want to make this fight for my boxing legacy. I want to win, that's my goal.
"I'm so happy because the feeling of the killer instinct and the focus that I had years ago is back. I haven't felt like this in my recent few fights, but now I feel different. I'm eager to show something, especially because I'm the underdog."
Pacquiao will have to turn in the most perfect performance of his life if he is to achieve that aim with Mayweather, at 38 the older of the pair by two years, showing only fleeting signs of slowing up.
The fight the world wants to see, the priority for fans now is ensuring they can get their eyes on it. Even here in Vegas, where everything has a price, tickets are non-existent. In Pacquiao's homeland, authorities have told residents to turn off as many appliances as they can to ensure that there is enough power for all citizens to watch their national idol. It's certainly no normal fight.
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