By Raj Parmar: While currently promoting his welterweight title defense against Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KO’s) that is set to take place on November 22, Manny Pacquiao (58-5-2, 38 KO’s) and promoter Bob Arum took some time to discuss a potential showdown with pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather (46-0, 26 KO’s). Both believe the long anticipated superfight can finally happen next year and that a deal will no doubt be reached amongst all parties involved very soon.
Mayweather currently has a network deal in place with Showtime while Manny fights for rival network HBO. Arum is confident however that the two networks can come to a special agreement to stage the fight, which would no doubt shatter pay per view records. Both networks had previously staged a joint promotion when Mike Tyson took on Lennox Lewis in a huge heavyweight title clash; as Tyson was signed with Showtime and Lewis with HBO.
Arum feels that the only thing preventing the fight from being confirmed for next year is Mayweather’s willingness to take the fight under fair terms for Pacquiao, which includes an equitable split of the money involved.
“With Showtime wanting the fight and HBO wanting it and Manny and Top Rank wanting the fight, there is one little step to take and that’s to see where Floyd stand and we’re optimistic that this time, Floyd will bite the bullet and do the fight on equitable terms,” Arum stated to mb.com.ph, “They (HBO and Showtime) can find a way to promote and satisfy both sides from a legal basis.”
Pacquiao himself feels that Floyd will fight him next year due in large part to the pressure Showtime will put on Floyd to step in the ring with him. “He doesn’t have a choice but to accept,” Pacquiao stated as he was preparing to continue the promotional tour for the Algieri fight.
Showtime signed Mayweather to a very aggressive 6 fight deal in order to lure the pay per view star away from HBO, with reports suggesting the deal could be worth as high as 250 million dollars for Floyd. Out of the three fights he has completed under the contract so far, two of those events (against Robert Guerrero in May 2013 and Marcos Maidana in May 2014) are said to have generated less than a million buys. On the other hand, his fight against popular Mexican boxer Saul Alvarez generated an enormous 2.2 million buys which is the second highest all time in number of buys.
Therefore it is clear that pitting Mayweather against a popular fighter is a sure bet to generate lots of pay per views buys which in turn leads to lots of money in the hands of the executives at the helm of the networks and promotions. If it is true that many people behind the scenes are losing money on the Floyd deal with Showtime due to the large amounts that must be paid to Floyd, it would not be extremely surprising if high power executives are itching to get a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight complete next year; which alone would cover the cost and more for Floyd’s entire revolutionary 6 fight deal.
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