Pacquiao: I’m just waiting for Mayweather’s signature
WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao confirmed that he had already agreed to all terms for a May 2 fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. AP
MANILA, Philippines–The megafight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. has never been this close to happening.
Just how close? Pacquiao said the only thing standing in the way of the possible showdown between the top two pound-for-pound fighters is Mayweather’s signature.
The Filipino ring legend made an appearance on Huffington Post Live and he confirmed that negotiations for the superbout are already ongoing and that there has been an “understanding” between the two camps.
“My promoter and his promoters, there’s negotiations already and there is an understanding,” Pacquiao said in the interview. “I heard there’s an understanding already. We’re just waiting for the signed contract from them.”
Pacquiao (57-5-2, with 38 knockouts) also confirmed earlier reports that he had already agreed to all terms, which include drug-testing, a 60-40 purse split in favor of Mayweather with a targeted May 2 date and the MGM Grand Garden Arena as the stage.
Mayweather (47-0, 26 KOs) has kept his lips sealed as of late but a source told mlive.com that promoter Bob Arum’s recent public comments against Mayweather could keep the unblemished American from agreeing to a deal.
“The best way to get the fight not done is for Arum to feel in charge. He did it with drug testing, he did it with trying to put the fight in Cowboy Stadium, he did it with the financial split. Arum talking is the best way to not get it made,” the source told mlive.com columnist David Mayo.
Another obstacle is the two fighters are under contract with opposing networks. Pacquiao is with HBO while Mayweather is with Showtime. The two rival networks, though, could do a joint coverage the same way they teamed up in a blockbuster heavyweight tiff between former heavyweight champions Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis in 2002.
If a deal couldn’t be done yet again, after talks in 2009 and 2010 fell apart, Mayweather has reportedly other enticing options. One is a rematch with Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto, whom Mayweather edged via majority decision in 2012, and British Amir Khan.
Cotto and Khan have been on a resurgence. The 34-year-old Cotto, the first Puerto Rican to win four world titles in four different weight classes after stopping Argentine Sergio Martinez last year, has successfully climbed his way back at the top since absorbing a TKO defeat at the hands of Pacquiao in 2009 winning five of his last seven fights via stoppage while the 2004 Olympic silver medalist Khan has bounced back from a fourth-round TKO to Danny Garcia in 2012.
For Pacquiao, he won’t mind if a deal won’t be reached for a long-awaited bout with Mayweather but rather he would feel for the fans, who have been waiting for a Pacquiao-Mayweather for a long time now.
“If you ask me if the fight happens, no problem. If that fight will not happen, it will never impact my career because what I’ve done in boxing, I’m already satisfied,” said Pacquiao, the sport’s only eight-division champion. “I broke the record in boxing. I’m a playing-coach. I’m a congressman.”
“My concern is to make the fight happen for the fans. Everywhere I go, even in Thailand, every place, the fans are asking, ‘When will this fight happen? When will this fight happen?’ That question is not for me, it’s for Mayweather. Millions of people are asking that question everywhere I go. It’s kind of bothering me, that question. It’s time to make the fight happen. The fans deserve it.”
