By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: There is no common ground when it comes to negotiations for the possible mega fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Rather than depend on biased articles and one sided stories, I have done my own research. Stephen Espinoza finally broke his silence on Fightype.com in response to Top Rank CEO Bob Arums claims. I read the entire interview and will use some of Espinoza exerts, along with other sources to try to sort this mystery out.
One thing Espinoza said “Our agreement at the onset of this process was that we (those negotiating) were all going to keep it out the press as much as possible”. To further support Espinoza’s point, on January 20th of this year, strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza gave a radio interview questioning what has Manny agree to. When that interview got back to Pac’s adviser, Michael Koncz, his response was this.
“The people they spoke to were able to negotiate on behalf of Mayweather, but they had agreed from the beginning not to reveal who was involved in the process”. (legal reasons prevents me from naming the site) So Espinoza statement lines right up with Koncz’s. Also keeping silent is Mayweather. But this is nothing new.
Mayweather has always been silent about his fight business until everything is set in stone then all the details are revealed. Even Pac’s trainer Freddie Roach has been silent. The only one that has not honored the “keep out of the press” agreement is Arum. Mayweather’s choice to stay silent about his business has worked against him in the media. People take his silence as nothing is happening and gives Arums claims much credibility. Just because one side doesn’t respond doesn’t mean nothing is going on.
In a delicate situation like this, the less the public hears the better. Next point; HBO or Showtime have yet to reach a deal. The two networks are trying to figure out who would do the production, which set of announcers would call the fight, who would get the delayed rights, and which ring announcer Showtime’s Jimmy Lennon Jr or HBO’s Michael Buffer) would be used. The two did a joint venture in 2002 with Lennox Lewis/Mike Tyson fight with Tyson representing Showtime and Lewis HBO respectively.
The agreement for that deal was the winner’s network would secure the delayed rights which turned out to be Lewis (HBO). This meant the fight turned out to be an HBO production and Showtime was not allowed to replay the fight. This time around HBO refuses to that same deal and want both networks to have the secured rights. Mayweather fights on Showtime and Pac on HBO. Some believe HBO is to the same deal because Mayweather is already a 3 to 1 favorite over Pac according to boxinginsider.com. This takes me to my next point.
Signed contracts. Arum has constantly insisted that their side has agreed on everything as well as the networks and all that’s missing is a signature from Mayweather. True, the two sides have agreed on certain terms for the fight, but no contracts have been drawn up. I reached out to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports and he confirmed that the two parties have agreed, but no contract has been drawn up. Here’s the proof…. https://twitter.com/icemancold11/status/558707733135101952. Aside from this, without the networks agreeing, the fighters would know how much of the pay per view buys would be dived up or how much money do the promoters and the networks get. If Showtime or HBO alone did the fight, then the revenue split could be easy. Espinoza broke his silence in order to refute Arum’s claims. When a twitter follower asked about the mega fight getting done, Espinoza replied via twitter with “Ask HBO.
They might have an answer Monday or Tuesday. Maybe”. Sam Watson, AL Haymon’s right hand man, has also said they are working on the fight and the parties have agreed on term. It’s interesting to note though that Watson is not apart of negotiations. But he did not say contracts were signed. The only one making that claim is Arum. If someone from HBO comes out and says something, and depending what they say, it will unclog the mystery drain. Here is where I got the info on the networks…. http://espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/post/_/id/11667/showtime-hbo-talk-mayweather-pacquiao.
Despite all this, sides still will be taken. But do your own research and judge for yourselves.
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