Arum says Pacquiao-Mayweather negotiations will be done in “next couple of days”

By Boxing News - 01/30/2015 - Comments

floyd8282828By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he’s counting on putting the final touches to the paperwork for the Floyd Mayweather Jr – Manny Pacquiao mega-fight negotiations for their fight on 5/2 on HBO and Showtime from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This being Friday, it means that Arum will be finishing up on the paperwork by this Sunday, the day of the Super Bowl match between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. Could this be just a coincidence or is it something done on purpose by Arum?

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You’d have to think that the fight being announced during the Super Bowl would be a huge way of kicking off the marketing for the bout, which is expected to bring in anywhere from $250 million to $300 million. With that much loot at stake, Mayweather could walk away with more than $150 million before taxes and expenses are taken out.

“Everybody is doing the right thing,” Arum said to the Nypost.com on Friday. “We’re looking to complete the paperwork. Everything is moving in the right direction. Hopefully, the next couple of days it will get done. The issues are being narrowed down to extraordinarily small points,” Arum said.

So there it is. Arum is close to finalizing the fight and putting it in contract form for both of the two superstars to sign it. Hopefully nothing gets in the way before then to stop the fight from moving forward, because this would be a huge buzz-kill if the negotiations suddenly went down the toilet with the fight so close.

Arum says that the negotiation points have been agreed to between the two fighters, although this is something that Arum has been talking about for weeks now so it’s nothing new on this end. According to the Post, the outstanding issue that needs to be agreed to is the HBO-Showtime involvement. However, they’re expected to have the deal ready within the next couple of days.

Mayweather obviously likes the idea of him pocketing a huge amount of money at one time for this fight. Mayweather will potentially be making 3 to 4 times the normal amount he receives for his fights, which is why this is the perfect bout for him. A rematch between him and Pacquiao would be just gravy for Mayweather.

It would finish out his final fight on his Showtime contract, and put him in a good position to have HBO and Showtime both bidding over him for a short-term contract worth millions.

The money that Mayweather can make for his next contract with one of the two cable giants is astronomical. It’s doubtful that Mayweather will want to sign a long term deal with them, given his age, but a short term deal would still make him a lot of green stuff to help feather his golden nest during his retirement from boxing.

Arum no longer doubts whether Mayweather wants the fight with Pacquiao. The two fighters’ recent meeting this week during the Miami Heat – Milwaukee Bucks game last Tuesday now has Arum convinced that Mayweather is ready to sign the contract once the final issues have been hammered out.



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