By Chris Williams: The Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Manny Pacquiao fight negotiations are coming close to being finished, but it’s still not a done deal at this point. There are reports that Pacquiao has signed the contract for the fight already, but that Mayweather still hasn’t signed his part of the contract.
While some boxing fans see this as a sign that the fight is a done deal, it actually means very little. As we already know, Pacquiao has been on board and ready to for ages for the fight.
It’s Mayweather who wanted the contract to be perfect before he signs, so he’s the one that we’re waiting on. Pacquiao signing the contract, whether this is true or not, means very little, because the A-side fighter Mayweather is the important person in the negotiations.
“MayweatherPacquiao deal is nearing finish line one way or other but 2 sources involved said it is NOT done at this point,” Rafael said on his Twitter. “Whether Manny signed or not Floyd has not per 2 sources directly involved. ‘Floyd’s the one we need to worry about not Manny,’ source said.
Rafael’s right. Pacquiao can sign contracts until he’s blue in the face and it matters little, because Mayweather is the one that needs to sign the contract.
Until he signs the contract, Pacquiao’s signing or not signing of the contract is meaningless. Mayweather is the decider here, and Pacquiao just another one of the many opponents that wants to get a fight against him. In other words, Mayweather is the pay-per-view king, and he’s the one that everyone is waiting for.
“Two sources say Pacquiao, Mayweather sides are still slogging through lingering issues,” said Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated on his Twitter. “No timetable; just say that no deal completed. There continues to be cautious optimism that a deal gets done. But we have been down this road before: It isn’t done until it’s done.”
This news obviously runs counter to some of the many UK news sites that are jumping the gun by saying that the fight is almost completed. You hate to see sites jumping the gun because we already saw TMZ say the fight was a done deal recently when in fact it wasn’t. And now we’ve got at least a half a dozen UK sites saying that Pacquiao has signed a contract for the fight.
The question is what has Pacquiao signed? Did he sign a contract or did he sign another deal memo? This is the same news that we heard a month ago when Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum were both talking about having signed a contract when in fact there was no contract to be signed.
“Manny has 100 per cent signed his side of the deal,” an unnamed source told the Telegraph.co.uk.“It is now over to Mayweather to close the deal and announce the fight.”
My advice to boxing fans is for them not to get excited until they hear concrete news from Mayweather himself rather than news about Pacquiao. Like I said, Mayweather is the decider, and he’s the one that will make the fight when the paper is right with the contract.
If there’s something that is out of order, then the contract won’t be signed. Mayweather will be the one that announces the fight, not Pacquiao’s side.
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