It will reportedly cost about $1 million to design and create and fans voted online for which of two belts Pacquiao, 36, or Mayweather, 38, will get when their welterweight bout is over. The choice was between a more traditional emerald green belt — boxing belts are often green — encrusted with diamonds, or an onyx belt, a design off the beaten path as far as championship belts go.
The vote was held by the World Boxing Council (WBC) and fans voted for the green, diamond-encrusted belt. The Mail Online reported the emerald belt won by a margin of just 6 percent. Only artists’ renditions were pictured during voting. The winning belt will now be completed.
“For this special recognition, I would like to have emeralds or platinum, but everything will be defined during the next weeks,” Sulaiman wrote on the WBC website last month. “This is because of the magnitude of the event, which will be broadcast via TV networks globally.”
Pacquiao (57-5-2 with 36 KOs) and Mayweather (47-0 with 26 KOs) will fight at 147lbs and there’ll be three championship belts on the line. Pacquiao owns the WBO welterweight belt and Mayweather the WBC and WBA belts. In addition to those belts, the lineal crown is up for grabs, a champion known as “the man who beat the man.”
There are more than 100 belts in 17 divisions but there is only one lineal crown in a division.