Former boxing world heavyweight champion and Hall of Famer Evander Holyfield believes he understands why Floyd Mayweather Jr. is getting very skeptical, albeit hesitant, in fighting Manny Pacquiao in what is touted to be as the world’s richest boxing bout ever.
Holyfield says that Floyd has everything to lose in the fight while Pacquiao has everything to gain, and that is the reason why Money still does not want to commit himself to the fight, despite making pronouncement in December 2014 that he wants to get it on with Pacquiao on May 2, 2015.
The former heavyweight champion added that with a 47-0 ring record and at 38 years of age, Mayweather is worried that one fight would blemish his immaculate slate that he painstakingly built over the years, cites Yahoo! News from a report of The Manila Bulletin.
Holyfield believes that Mayweather is not afraid to fight Pacquiao in the ring but is more concerned with the possibility of getting that one smirk in his flawless ring record. He also said that Pacquiao has everything to gain since the Filipino boxing icon has already tasted defeat five times in his career and that another loss would mean nothing to the Pacman.
Stalled negotiations
Contrary to the latest pronouncements of Bob Arum, Freddie Roach and Manny Pacquiao on the media that negotiations for the mega-fight is proceeding smoothly and that the announcement of the fight details will be made before the end of January 2015, there are reports that the discussions have stalled.
Although the Pacman has reportedly agree on a 60-40 purse split in favor of Mayweather, negotiations have stalled because skepticisms have set in on Money’s thoughts again.
He really wants to protect his record until he retires from boxing, which would be pretty soon. Though the thought of earning the richest payday in the history of boxing and the entire sports looms high in the horizon, he is very worried of getting that first blot on his record courtesy of Manny Pacquiao. That is the thought that he cannot live with after their fight is over.
Fighting options
Mayweather has been uncharacteristically quiet of late including in the social media where he usually makes his announcements or even cryptic messages to give people hints of his upcoming plans and intentions.
Latest word on the Pacquiao camp, although still unofficial at this time, is that Top Rank and Bob Arum are now looking for fight options for the Pacman in the event that the negotiations for the Mayweather fight bogs down.
While Pacquiao has previously announced that he will go down to junior welterweight after his bout with Chris Algieri, it looks like he won’t be able to do it in his next fight since Top Rank is looking to give him a fight this April if the Mayweather bout does not materializes.