Pacquiao-Mayweather “Super Fight” will be announced before Super Bowl

By Boxing News - 01/29/2015 - Comments

floyd74By Sizzle JKD: Here’s the bottom line, the final contract and mega fight between Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao and Floyd “Money” Mayweather is expected to be signed, sealed, and delivered on Friday, January 30th and subsequently announced the same day or on Saturday, depending on how soon lawyers from HBO, CBS/Showtime, Top Rank Promotions, and Mayweather Promotions are able to approve the final contract, draft it, and secure the signatures from both fighters.

Last minute complications are the only thing that can delay the announcement past the Super Bowl, but the long awaited announcement is planned to take place this weekend.

Pacquiao flew to Los Angeles on Wednesday, and at this time it is not known if he immediately took a flight to the Philippines. Meanwhile, Floyd’s whereabouts remain unknown, but one thing we do know is that Floyd loves to attend L.A. Lakers games and Pacquiao loves to watch basketball. All I’m going to say is that the Chicago Bulls will be playing the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center tonight and the game will be nationally televised by TNT.

There has been much talk about the contract the last two weeks and whether a contract had actually been drafted. Dan Rafael of ESPN reported this week that the only thing that was drawn up was a “memo” that simply outlined some of the major points/demands that Team Mayweather wanted Team Pacquiao to adhere to.

Pacquiao agreed to everything in the “memo” and once it was relayed to Team Mayweather, it gave CBS/Showtime and HBO the green light to begin contract talks for the planned joint broadcast coverage.

The talks between the two networks have been ongoing the last two weeks, while Team Floyd decided to stay quiet and Team Pacquiao heavily publicized its position, maintaining confidence that the fight would eventually take place because they had agreed to all of Team Mayweather’s initial demands.

Whether it was a verbal or written agreement of the terms and conditions is beside the point. The bottom line was that both camps revealed a serious intention to make progress and make the fight happen.

When Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz spoke with FightHype.com Wednesday morning, Koncz was asked to provide details about the contract negotiations and what is contained in the “contract” that was supposedly signed by Pacquiao.

Koncz pretty much clued everyone in on when the super fight would be announced – by this weekend.

Koncz said to Fighthype.com, “For right now…with all due respect, I would like to reserve that for a day or two. Give me a day or two…I told Floyd I would address [his] issue, but I prefer to wait a day or two. There were some concerns about the broadcasting. I promised Floyd I would get on the phone [Wednesday] morning and work those out and put our foot down on certain issues. I’ve been told that those are resolved. I’m going to confirm that here in a few minutes. We will address that [contract], but I think that’s good for another interview a couple days down the road.”

A couple more days, according to Koncz, and everything from the fight contract to the broadcast contract would be finalized, made clear, and announced to everyone through an interview.

It is clear Koncz was referring to the talks between HBO and Showtime that was taking a little longer than expected to finalize. In fact, Floyd told Koncz Tuesday night that he had some concerns about the broadcasting, among them who would announce the fight and what was to be done with the networks’ respective documentaries, Showtime’s “All-Access” show and HBO’s “24/7.”

Once Floyd receives clarity on the talks between the networks, and once the final contract is drawn up (which is expected by Friday), then Floyd would sign off and the final contract details would be made public in about two days.

Last week, Showtime V.P. Stephen Espinoza said that the talks between the two networks were just about “halfway done.” It would just be a matter of time when everything would be finalized.

In addition, since it’s apparent that Floyd is out of the loop concerning HBO’s side in the negotiations, it was very important for Floyd to know for himself where HBO stood in the talks. Floyd, who is his own promoter, doesn’t want to deal directly with Bob Arum because of their strained relationship so it is very understandable that Mayweather would be largely uninformed about HBO’s position in the negotiations although Espinoza is there to advise him.

Floyd, who seeks complete control of everything inside and outside the ring, wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth, from the other side so to speak.

Enter Koncz who, in essence, is serving as HBO’s messenger and go-between since Koncz has been in direct contact with Arum and Arum has had direct communication with HBO Chief Executive Officer Richard Plepler.

Furthermore, it was reported by RingTV.com that Mayweather even put Espinoza, on the phone with Koncz during their hour long meeting in Pacquiao’s hotel room to get additional clarification on his concerns about the two networks.

On Wednesday morning, Koncz got on the phone with Arum, CBS CEO Les Moonves, and Plepler in order to address Mayweather’s concerns. The result of the conference call was highly encouraging.

“We came to an agreement on those two issues,” Koncz told RingTV.com. “It is my understanding that the networks will each do a special on their own fighter.” In addition, broadcasters from both HBO and Showtime will cover the fight.

It’s important to note Floyd also agreed with Manny and Koncz that there would be no need to do a multi-episode special of “All-Access” or “24/7” because everyone already knows who they are.

In spite of all the criticism and accusations that Arum is a lying and deceitful S.O.B., he has stuck to his guns and done nothing but stay the course in order to make this fight happen while satisfying Mayweather’s wishes to stay as far away from the negotiations as possible. Indeed, mission accomplished for Arum.

Arum stated, “What happened last night, you got from Michael Koncz. I wasn’t there but I got the same report from Michael that you did. Have I talked to Les Moonves today? Yes I have, and to Richard Plepler, and everybody is working hard to finish this off so it happens.”

It’s been a long time coming, and fans from around the world will finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief and prepare themselves for the showdown of all showdowns. When serious negotiations between the two camps were jumpstarted in the beginning of January, it became apparent that the only two figures who could stop the fight from happening were Floyd and Manny.

To think that Bob Arum, Al Haymon, Alex Ariza, or even Buboy Fernandez could prevent this fight from materializing would be nothing short of preposterous. Both fighters wanted this fight, and unless either Floyd or Manny had a change of heart, all other parties were on board.

“Bob Arum can’t stop the fight. Showtime cannot stop the fight. HBO cannot stop it,” reiterated Koncz. “I believe the fight will happen if the two fighters want it to happen, and my belief, after watching them together, is that they both want the fight…the fight is going to happen.”

There’s no more need to discuss the hype that is being built around the fighters’ recent appearances. There’s no more need to speculate why Manny went to the U.K. and why Floyd is going to Australia. The only thing we need to know is that both fighters want this fight just as bad as we do, and they want it for all the reasons everyone has been regurgitating since 2009.

The press fed you the info, you bought the story, and every media outlet from here to Timbuktu is going berserk just like the 5-year old who walked into Toys “R” Us for the very first time.

“Fistory,” ladies and gentlemen, will finally be announced. All we have to do is wait patiently for about two more days.



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