Here's How to Stream the Mayweather-Pacquiao Fight

HBO and Showtime are trying to make it impossible to watch the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight online. But where there’s an Internet, there’s a way---even if it’s convoluted.
Fans cheer before the official weighin for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao on May 1 2015 at MGM Grand Garden...
Fans cheer before the official weigh-in for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao on May 1, 2015 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two boxers will face each other in a welterweight unification bout on May 2, 2015 in Las Vegas.Harry How/Getty Images

Tonight, people all over the world will somehow, some way, be watching the pay-per-view Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao boxing match that's being hyped as 'the Fight of the Century.' But for many, it won't be easy. HBO and Showtime have exclusive rights to the match and are ready to take down illegal streaming sites offering the show. They're so aggressive, they've already filed a couple of lawsuits against piracy sites that had planned to stream the fight.

HBO and Showtime are trying to make it impossible to watch the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight online. But where there’s an Internet, there’s a way---even if it’s a fairly convoluted one. Truly, the only option if you're a cord-cutter or a globetrotter is to use a VPN, or Virtual Private Network.

A VPN service basically gives you a new IP address, one from a server located in another country. VPNs come in various forms (some are free, simple extensions, while more sophisticated options will cost you and have to be downloaded), but they are all simple to use. You open, select a country, and then visit the site or service that holds the content you're looking for. And if everything works as it should, sites you visit will think you're located in the country of your choosing.

A handful of popular VPN providers assured me that acquiring a specific country’s IP address through their services would give you access to the fight. Of course, which country you’re trying to stream the game from (or rather, what country your VPN says you’re streaming from) will change pricing and availability.

Here's how to watch the fight:
If you're outside the country, you can obtain an American IP address. Then you can catch Showtime’s stream… as long as you have a subscription and can log in to Showtime’s account portal. You'd have to pay the $100 pay-per-view fee, of course. And if you don’t have a Showtime subscription? Not that we think it's a good idea, but you could always try the ol’ using-your-parents’-login trick, and pay the $100 fee from there. Update: Showtime Anytime will not be streaming the fight at all, though it will likely be available via HBO Go in the near future (no dates available yet).

If you're anywhere and just want to try to stream the match for free (not that we'd advise that---HBO and Showtime plan to make a lot of money off this battle, and we wouldn't want you to chip away at their profits):

You could try setting up a VPN in one of the countries where the fight is airing free-of-charge. Say, the Philippines, where the fight is free on ABS-CBN. The fight is also free in Colombia, China, Dubai, France, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand. (Hit the previous link to find out which channels will be hosting; you may need to login to the country's respective cable provider in order to access the channel, so there's another potential cost.) PureVPN also told me that Peru will have the fight for free, via the Frecuencia Latina network. HideMyAss is yet another provider that has “a lot of servers in a lot of different locations,” including many of the aforementioned countries.

Invisible Browsing VPN is advertising an option that let’s you watch the fight for free---except, not really. You can use its free trial to then switch IP addresses to a country streaming the event for free and again, pay for one of their cable options.

"I would like clarify one thing: Getting a PureVPN subscription doesn't mean that users are able to live stream any paid online streaming channel for free," Faraz Ali, Digital Marketing Manager at PureVPN, said when asked about streaming the game. "Users are required to buy channel's subscription in order to get access. We only act as a bridge between user and the online streaming channel and this is what we charge for." Ali assures me that VPNs are all perfectly legal because they are simply acting as this "bridge"---where users choose to take that bridge is on them.

But be prepared for interruptions: Internet Service Providers are cracking down on VPNs more than ever, as are content distributors. (Anecdotally, I’ve seen my own VPN streaming get glitchier and less reliable over the course of the last year, although I opt for a free service only.)

Does it feel like an exorbitant amount of effort is being put into preventing you from watching a sport that isn’t even all that internationally popular and could potentially last mere minutes?

Why yes, yes it does.