Rafael reporting Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiation points not all agreed to – News

By Boxing News - 07/03/2010 - Comments

Image: Rafael reporting Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiation points not all agreed to - NewsBy Chris Williams: According to Fighthype, Dan Rafael is saying that all the “points aren’t agreed to” as far as the contract negotiations between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Two days ago, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum advised Sportsillustrated.com that the negotiations had been agreed to by Mayweather’s promotional company and that the contract was now in Mayweather’s hands waiting for him to look it over and sign it.

Arum said that Mayweather has only until “mid-July” to agree to the fight otherwise Arum would take Pacquiao and look to match him up with his other Top Rank fighters, either Miguel Cotto or Antonio Margarito. However, Rafael says that all the things aren’t agreed on between Mayweather and Pacquiao, which makes Arum’s statement all the more confusing.

If the negotiating points aren’t all agreed on, then why is Arum giving Mayweather and ultimatum of two weeks? Is Arum basically giving Mayweather a take it or leave it offer? There’s some people who think that Arum doesn’t want the Mayweather fight right now, that he would prefer to match Pacquiao up with one of his Top Rank fighters instead and keep Mayweather as a future option next year or whenever Pacquiao is poised to retire.

That would make a lot of sense, because Mayweather is likely to beat Pacquiao and very possibly beat him badly. Once Pacquiao gets dominated by Mayweather, the Filipino’s earning power could take a big hit and he could be a lot less popular once the mystique has been deflated by Mayweather’s blinding fast punches. By matching Pacquiao up with his in-house fighters, Arum can likely keep Pacquiao winning until he’s ready to retire from boxing in a year or two.

At that point, Arum would then match Pacquiao up with Mayweather for one final payday, and a likely one-sided loss for Pacquiao. That would be a brilliant move on Arum’s part, if that’s what he’s planning on doing. It would pretty much be a disappointment for fans, though, because they’ve already seen Pacquiao destroy Cotto, and to see him beat him to a pulp again would be painfully boring, especially if they have to pay $50 to watch it again.

The chances of Pacquiao fighting Margarito aren’t that great, so it’s probably going to be Cotto that gets selected by Arum as the back-up plan, if you want to call it that.

You have to wonder what inside the contract is not pleasing Mayweather. Could be anything, and could be a number of things. Golden Boy Promotions isn’t talking, so all we’re getting is what Arum said a couple of days ago. It would really be horrible to have to pay to watch Pacquiao destroy Cotto again. Forget about Emanuel Steward, Cotto will get destroyed just like last time and it’s not interesting.



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