By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr took to his social media “shots” account today to give a brief message about his negotiations with Top Rank fighter Manny Pacquiao.
Mayweather says he set up a meeting with the Filipino fighter, but that there are some out there that are giving a false message by saying it’s not happening. Mayweather doesn’t say who he’s referring to so you’re kind of left guessing.
It’s a positive sign that Mayweather is talking about him still working at the negotiations because there are some boxing fans, writers and fighters who believe that the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is dead in the water.
“I set up this meeting with Manny Pacquiao to get this fight done, but they will continue to tell the public it’s us and that’s NOT TRUE,” Mayweather said on his Shots account today. “So while we wait y’all go download @Shots ASAP so I can keep you all updated on the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight that we are trying to make happen.”
If the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao is going to happen then it’s going to probably require these two fighters to get together on a frequent basis for the two of them to iron out the problems themselves. If Mayweather leaves it up to his adviser Al Haymon, and Pacquiao leaves it to his promoter Bob Arum, it probably won’t get done.
It’s probable that we could see the two of them dig their feet into the sand and refuse to give ground. Mayweather and Pacquiao stand to gain the most, and that’s why it makes sense for them to go over the list of items that the negotiations are stuck and agree on things.
The area where Mayweather and Pacquiao can’t fix themselves is with the HBO and Showtime negotiations. However, Pacquiao has the muscle to push HBO into agreeing to the fight, but it might require for Pacquiao to push them. HBO obviously wants to keep Pacquiao under contract for as long as possible. They obviously don’t want to see Pacquiao move on and sign with Showtime out of disgust with HBO not being able to agree with Showtime for his mega-fight with Mayweather. The same token goes with Mayweather and Showtime. He can push Showtime to agree with HBO, as long as it’s nothing related to them giving up rebroadcast rights to the fight.
With Mayweather and Pacquiao working the process, we could see the fight signed fairly soon. Bob Arum is already talking about the HBO and Showtime negotiations finally being done. That leaves only two outstanding issues that need to be worked through before the fight contracts can be signed. It’s unclear what those two remaining issues are, but it’s got to be something significant for them to be still hashing those items out at this late stage.
Ideally, the negotiations need to be completed by next week in order for the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight not to be impacted by the lack of time to promote the fight. Arum wants as much time as possible to market the bout to the boxing public.
It’s unknown if Arum is interested in a world tour or merely a shot promotional tour of the United States. If Arum is on board with what Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz has been saying about the fight not needing much selling, then we could see very little marketing of the fight. It’s a risky thing to do because there are a lot of casual boxing fans who are busy with their lives, and they may not hear about the fight unless Arum is willing to market the fight in a big way.
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