Arum says Pacquiao has ‘agreed to terms’ to fight Mayweather — report
Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. File photo
MANILA, Philippines —Eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao has “agreed to terms” to fight unblemished Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 2, Top Rank honcho Bob Arum said in a report.
And only Mayweather’s go-signal is keeping the top two pound-for-pound fighters to finally meet in the ring.
“Bob Arum told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday that Manny Pacquiao has agreed to terms for a May 2 bout with Floyd Mayweather, and that the only thing in the way of the long-awaited fight occurring is Mayweather’s approval,” renowned boxing expert Kevin Iole wrote.
Arum also said that Mayweather’s representatives have also “agreed to the deal but have not been able to get Mayweather’s agreement.”
Part of the said deal is the 60/40 purse split in favor of Mayweather and that the megafight will be staged at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas as reported by the Los Angeles Times last Wednesday.
“The people we have talked on Mayweather’s side have agreed to everything. Now we need Mayweather to step up and say ‘Yeah, I’m on board. I agree,'” Arum told Yahoo Sports.
“I’m not going to put a deadline on there. I’m just going to hope that everybody does the right thing and we get this concluded. It would be really sad if we went through this stuff again like we did before,” Arum added in the same report.
A possible fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao first surfaced in 2009. But talks crumbled after Pacquiao refused to agree with Mayweather’s demands for a last-minute drug-testing.
Rumors of a Mayweather-Pacquiao showdown also popped up in 2011 but again never materialized.
The drug-testing issue appeared to have been resolved now with Arum telling Yahoo Sports that Pacquiao “has no problem to being tested and readily agreed to testing as part of his deal” to make the fight happen.
“The point is that I don’t want what happened the other times to happen again,” Arum assured. “I want this fight to actually happen. I want everybody to make a lot of money on the fight. I want the public to be satisfied. And I think it will be a terrific event. That’s what I want, and I’ve done everything in my power to make that happen.”
“I think Manny has been very reasonable and demonstrated that he wants the fight to happen. Now, we’re waiting on Floyd. That’s not to say that Floyd has been obstinate, that Floyd won’t do it, but we’re waiting on him,” Arum cleared.
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