Sulaiman: The WBC has removed obstacles to make sure Mayweather-Pacquiao fight happens

By Boxing News - 01/28/2015 - Comments

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By Chris Williams:
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman says the World Boxing Council has made the moves to ensure that the May 2nd fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao fight takes place. Sulaiman says it’s now up to the two superstars to give fight fans the mega-bout that the world has been asking for in the last few years.

If you look at the moves that the WBC has made, the one thing that jumps out at you is the previous high ranking that they gave Pacquiao in order to put him in position to face Mayweather for his WBC belt.

Since Pacquiao is now the WBO welterweight champion, the WBC no longer has him ranked in their top 15. In his place, the WBC has Amir Khan ranked No.1. That would seem to be the WBC’s next hope for Mayweather to fight after or in place of the Pacquiao fight.

“The world has been waiting for Mayweather-Pacquiao for several years now. The WBC did everything possible to enhance it, to make sure there were no obstacles for the fight to happen, and it is up to them to get into the ring or not,” Sulaiman said. “The boxing world can be assured that in 2015 there will be many, many great fights. If the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight doesn’t happen, there will be other great fights. Hopefully, it will happen; everybody wants to see that fight. Both fighters deserve that fight, and to prove it in the ring what the world wants to see,” Sulaiman said.

Mayweather and Pacquiao both want the mega-fight. The only thing that could potentially stop the fight from happening is the two of them getting locked up over their continued negotiations, which are still not compete despite their being only three days before Pacquiao’s deadline to walk away from the negotiations on January 31st.

The other thing that could trip up the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight and ruining it for the boxing fans is the HBO-Showtime negotiations. The two companies still haven’t completed their negotiations and its unknown when/if they ever will. The talk is that they’re stuck on the subject of the rebroadcast rights.

Pacquiao really needs a win right now because another defeat could put drive down his pay-per-view numbers even lower than they are now. Pacquiao has lost two out of his last five fights, and he’s not fought anyone that you can call a good fighter since he was knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012. Pacquiao’s since then have come against Brandon Rios, Tim Bradley and Chris Algieri.



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