Top Rank chief Bob Arum should stop talking and making it look like that he is in charge of the Manny Pacquiao – Floyd Mayweather Jr. mega-fight if he wants to see the historic bout happening.
An insider from Mayweather’s camp revealed that Floyd is not happy that Bob Arum has been talking lately as if he is on top of the negotiations. The source said it is not helping Money to finally decide on agreeing to the fight which already has a ring date and venue – May 2, 2015 at the MGM Grand.
MLive reported that HBO and Showtime are in the midst of negotiations in New York for the world’s most anticipated boxing bout and perhaps the richest match ever in the history of boxing.
Pacquiao is with HBO while Mayweather is with Showtime and given the significant amount of money involved in the negotiations, not to mention the utmost pride for the rival TV networks, it is not possible that a stalemate may occur.
The last time that HBO and Showtime collaborated over a boxing match was back in 2002 during the fight between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, where Lewis completely dominated Tyson.
There are still several things to be ironed out and resolved including foreign TV rights and conflicts between sponsoring companies of both Pacquiao and Mayweather.
Can’t keep his mouth shut
Arum disclosed to the media last week that the Manny Pacquiao – Floyd Mayweather fight was already close to happening because he said that Pacquiao already agreed to the 60-40 purse split and also to the mandatory drug testing.
The Top Rank honcho even convinced Pacquiao to publicly come out days later to say that the Pacman has already signed the fight deal and that they’re just waiting for Mayweather to agree to the terms and sign the contract.
The source from Mayweather camp said that Arum’s public declarations about the negotiations on the fight is not helping at all because Floyd normally gets turn off by the pronouncements coming from the Top Rank boss.
He also added that it was Arum who ‘undo’ the fight that was supposed to happen as early as five years ago when he meddled in the drug testing, in pushing the fight venue to the Cowboy Stadium, and the financial split at that time. If he will keep on talking, the fight would most likely go down the drain again, cites the source.
Fallback for Mayweather
With less than three and a half months away from the May 2 fight, it really appears that the Manny Pacquiao – Floyd Mayweather mega-bout won’t be happening given the extensive preparations needed to prepare and promote the fight.
The source said that should the Pacquiao fight fails to materialize, Mayweather would most likely opt for a rematch with Miguel Cotto or finally decide on accepting Amir Khan’s challenge.