MGM Grand the big winner as Floyd Mayweather announces he’ll fight Marcos Maidana in Vegas

Kevin Iole

LAS VEGAS -- It took a week or so later than expected, but the result is hardly a shock: Floyd Mayweather's fight with Marcos Maidana on May 3 at the MGM Grand Garden.

Mayweather has fought his last fought his last eight bouts at the MGM and has appeared at the Garden 11 times overall since he turned professional in 1996.

Mayweather's decision makes a huge winner of the MGM Grand, which now has four massive pay-per-views over the next three months. It is hosting Canelo Alvarez-Alfredo Angulo on Saturday. It has Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley II on April 12, Mayweather-Maidana on May 3 and UFC 173 featuring a middleweight title bout between Chris Weidman and Lyoto Machida on May 24.

The Barclay's Center in New York made a bid for the Mayweather-Maidana fight, but it was always a massive longshot to land it because of the tax situation and the cost of doing business in New York. There is no income tax in Nevada, but it is 8.82 percent in New York for those earning over $2,058,550. Mayweather is expected to be guaranteed 15 to 20 times that amount.

Mayweather made the announcement, as he has done with most of his major news recently, via Twitter. He wrote, "I will be fighting at the best place on Earth on May 3rd… the MGM Grand."

Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, said it was his duty to investigate all offers and that at the end of the day, the decision belonged to Mayweather.

"When you're making a decision of this magnitude, you have to consider everything," Ellerbe said. "You have to look at everything, from top to bottom, and make certain you've covered all of your bases. It's simply smart business. We took a look at every offer that was out there and then Floyd made the decision.

"He loves fighting in Las Vegas and he has a great relationship with the people there. This [delay in announcing the venue] had nothing to do with the MGM. It was just about doing our business the right way."

Ellerbe said there will be no promotional press tour. Last year, Mayweather and Alvarez crisscrossed the country and appeared in Mexico on a nine-stop tour that greatly aided the 2.2-million pay-per-view sales.