fight of the Century has been signed - Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao

The Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built over a 20-year period. Construction of the Taj Mahal in India took even longer: 22 years.  

By those standards, the fight that's being hyped as if it's the latest Wonder of the World has developed in a relative snap. When Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao enter the ring May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, it will have taken only five-plus years. But for those whose hopes have so frequently been raised and then dashed, the making of
Mayweather-Pacquiao has seemed like simultaneously erecting the Great Pyramid, the Taj Mahal and, oh, maybe the Parthenon and Roman Colosseum as well.

It's been an excruciating and drawn-out process, with no certainty of any final payoff—at least until Mayweather finally announced the fight last Friday.

So how did this superfight, the road to which had been so obstacle-strewn, finally reach fruition?

Bleacher Report spoke to many of those close to the negotiations to get the inside story. The answer, as detailed below, is a combination of luck, hard work, willpower and, of course, a whole lot of money.

After years of deadlock, one of the first significant roadblocks to be cleared was overcome by pure coincidence.

Mayweather and Pacquiao were both sitting courtside in Miami on Jan. 27 for a Heat-Bucks game. Both are avid basketball fans, and neither knew the other would be there. They arranged to talk at halftime at center court, where they shook hands and exchanged telephone numbers. Later that night, they continued their impromptu and mostly amiable discussion in Pacquiao's hotel suite.