Issues holding back Mayweather’s September 12th fight

By Boxing News - 07/27/2015 - Comments

Floyd Mayweather vs Manny PacquiaoBy Dan Ambrose: WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr’s September 12th fight is being held back by issues involving his future fights if he chooses to continue fighting beyond his September 12th date.

According to Dan Rafael, Showtime/CBS wants rights to Mayweather’s future fights if he decides to keep his career going after his next fight date. Supposedly, this is going to be Mayweather’s last fight of his career in September. However, if he changes his mind about retiring and decides to sign up with HBO to go for his 50th win of his career, Showtime/CBS is looking to protect their investment, says Rafael.

Stephen Espinoza, the vice president of sports for Showtime, totally disagrees with Rafael. He says none of this is true about Showtime holding up Mayweather for his September 12th fight.

Mayweather’s six-fight contract with Showtime/CBS ends in September, so it’s hard to see why Mayweather would be obligated to continue fighting with them if he chooses to fight in 2016 and beyond. Of course, it’s impossible to know what contract language was in the original six-fight contract.

“9/12 Floyd fight still not set. Issues there. Floyd says he’s retiring but Show/CBS want rights to future fights should he change mind,” Rafael said on his Twitter. “Show/CBS not about to let Floyd decide to return to possibly go 50-0 & take fight across street. This is 1 of reasons for long delay. I can’t blame Show/CBS for protecting their considerable investment in Floyd. I’d do the same thing.”

If Mayweather chooses to fight for HBO in 2016 rather than Showtime, then it would bring a lot of viewers to HBO, as well a lot of money. It would really bring a lot of money potentially if Mayweather were to fight someone good like Manny Pacquiao in a rematch, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Miguel Cotto or Gennady Golovkin.

Mayweather would have a lot of options to fight if he were to move over to HBO for 2016. He wouldn’t have to worry about the hassle of trying to negotiate a fight between different networks.

If Mayweather stays with Showtime and is limited to only fighters that fight on the network, then his options could be limited if he decides to continue fighting next year unless Showtime and HBO were willing to work out a deal to televise the fight on both networks like what we saw in Mayweather’s recent fight against Manny Pacquiao on HBO/Showtime.

Mayweather is expected to fight Andre Berto on September 12th on Showtime PPV from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Not too many boxing fans are interested in seeing that fight whether on Showtime or free television on CBS. If this is going to be Mayweather’s last fight for Showtime/CBS, he’s not exactly giving them a great sendoff fight.



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