By Dan Ambrose: Cable giant HBO issued a statement today on the Floyd Mayweather Jr – Manny Pacquiao negotiations by saying that they’re not blocking he fight from taking place, and that they’re for all practical purposes ready to go for the fight.
Instead of seeing it a situation where they’re the ones blocking the fight from happening by them reportedly insisting on being the one that shows the replay of the fight rather than Showtime, the comment from HBO suggests that it’s the fighters – and they’re management – who need to agree.
“We are not an impediment to this fight. We stand ready to go. The principals need to agree to terms and come to a deal.” — @HBO boxing.
If HBO and Showtime can’t work out a deal for this fight then they could be burning their bridges for it to happen later on. It’s like crying wolf over and over again. At some point the boxing public will just ignore the fight if this kind of thing continues to happen. I think a lot of boxing fans will lose interest after this time if the fight doesn’t get made.
Mayweather will be fighting on May 2nd regardless of whether he faces Pacquiao or not. If HBO and Showtime can’t agree in their negotiations then Mayweather will move on and face the best possible opponent. That would mean Amir Khan or someone like Miguel Cotto.
For Pacquiao, he’ll fight on May 30th if he can’t get the Mayweather fight. Pacquiao’s options are a lot less interesting with him possibly facing Top Rank fighter Jessie Vargas or maybe someone like Khan if his promoter Bob Arum can work with Khan’s adviser Al Haymon.
Pacquiao is with HBO and Mayweather with Showtime. You would think that Pacquiao could use his muscle to push HBO to get them to agree to a deal with Showtime if that’s what’s standing in the way of the fight. HBO obviously doesn’t want to lose Pacquiao while he’s still more or less in his prime of his career.
It’s unclear how many years Pacquiao has on his contract with HBO though. If it’s about to run out then Pacquiao could potentially lean on HBO to get them to make a deal.
I don’t see Pacquiao doing that, but in theory he can push to make the fight happen by taking to HBO. But if Pacquiao’s contract with HBO isn’t up for a long period of time then it probably won’t matter if he leans on them. They’ll know that they still have Pacquiao under contract for years to come even if they don’t agree with Showtime to make the fight happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCHD9CRMV54
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