By Chris Williams: In perhaps a good sign for the fans who are looking forward to the May 2nd Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr mega-fight in Las Vegas, Nevada, Pacquiao is saying that he’s 80 percent certain that the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight will be taking place next.
Pacquiao isn’t tipping his hands as to why he believes the fight will be going forward, but he must have some inside information that leads him to believe this.
“I think it will happen, I believe that,” Pacquiao said via Sky Ringside. “If you ask me what the percentage is, it’s 80-20 [that it will happen]. I think he’s got pressure. He’s got no alibi – blood testing is no longer a problem, Bob Arum the promoter is no longer a problem, now there are no more problems.”
Mayweather wants the fight, but there are still unfinished items that still need to be agreed to in the contract. There’s also HBO and Showtime who still haven’t completed their part of the negotiations in order to have the fight jointly televised. Without an agreement between those two cable giants there is no Pacquiao-Mayweather fight.
Pacquiao is simplifying the negotiations by saying he’s agreed to the terms when there are still outstanding items that haven’t been agreed on. In other words, Pacquiao has agreed to what he likes in the contract, but Mayweather and his team haven’t agreed. In negotiations it takes two parties to agree, and Pacquiao seems to be focused just on himself rather than on the back and forth negotiating that needs to be done.
“If this doesn’t happen now I don’t think it will, so now is the time,” Pacquiao said.
Well, if Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum keep setting deadlines and pulling out of the negotiations with Mayweather each time they negotiate with him, then, yes, there probably won’t ever be a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. Pacquiao has got to realize that setting unilateral deadlines isn’t conducive to negotiations.
What makes it stranger is when you have a B-side fighter setting the deadlines like what we’re seeing here with Pacquiao. That doesn’t make sense. Pacquiao doesn’t have the negotiating muscle to set deadlines with Mayweather, and it just comes off very odd when you see Pacquiao or Arum talking deadlines. It’s as if they’re negotiating with one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters like Brandon Rios.
Yeah, you can set deadlines with Rios or the other guys in Arum’s table and they’ll likely meet those deadlines because they want the Pacquiao fight, but when you have a star like Mayweather, you don’t screw things up by failing to remember your place in the equation.
You don’t tell the king of pay-per-view buys that you’ve got a deadline unless you have don’t mind losing out on the fight. You have to wonder where Pacquiao and Arum learned their negotiation tactics, because a move like this is really bush league. When you deal with the king of PPVs, you’ve got to deal with him in a more placating manner if you want the fight.
“The fans are pressuring him. I tell them we have agreed everything, the rules and regulations are not a problem,” Pacquiao said.
We don’t know what Pacquiao did or didn’t agree to, but it’s pretty clear that Mayweather isn’t ready to sign off on the things that Pacquiao has supposedly agreed to. If Mayweather hasn’t agreed to the contract then it doesn’t matter what Pacquiao has said yes to.
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