By Chris Williams: Stephen Espinoza, the vice president of Showtime Sports, confirmed on Tuesday that Floyd Mayweather Jr isn’t the one that’s holding up the negotiations for the Manny Pacquiao fight on May 2nd.
Espinoza didn’t spell it out by saying that the 36-year-old Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum are the ones holding up the negotiations, but it leaves one wondering whether that’s the case.
If Mayweather isn’t the one holding up the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, then it only leaves Pacquiao and Arum, unless it’s HBO or Showtime causing the huge delay in the negotiations not getting completed.
“Not accurate. Floyd isn’t holding the deal up,” Espinoza said on his twitter in response to some boxing fans putting the blame on Mayweather for the fight not getting made with the Filipino star.
The biggest tragedy about the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao negotiations is the senseless blame that is being cast about and directed at Mayweather for the fight not getting made.
Some boxing fans have their minds made of that Mayweather not only stopped the negotiations with Pacquiao in 2009 from getting completed by him having the audacity to ask Pacquiao to agree to random blood testing to check for performance enhancing drugs, but he’s now holding up the current negotiations.
If the negotiations don’t get completed between Mayweather and Pacquiao this time around then boxing fans need to keep an open mind about why the negotiations didn’t get completed.
Unless we see Mayweather and Espinoza speaking their minds about why the fight didn’t get made, then fans can’t assume that they’re getting the straight scoop if all they’re hearing is rumors or information from one side of the equation.
Mayweather has every reason to want the negotiations to get completed because he stands to make a lot of green for this fight. He could potentially make as much as $150 million for the fight, and that’s a lot better than the money he’d make for fighting Amir Khan or Miguel Cotto, two of the options that Mayweather has as his plan-B opponents.
With the kind of green that Mayweather can make for the Pacquiao fight, it’s a no-brainer for him to be shooting for that fight rather than going over old ground in a fight against Cotto or having to deal with being held all night in a fight against Khan.
The money is just too good for Mayweather to turn it down for the Pacquiao fight. Besides that, Pacquiao could be the easier fight for Mayweather than him having to fight the bigger, stronger Cotto or having to deal with Khan. Pacquiao is someone that Mayweather can figure out fairly easily, and then come up with a plan to negate his skills.
You’d hate to think that Pacquiao and Arum are holding up the negotiations for the Mayweather fight by being stubborn and holding out for this or that in the negotiations. It’s already been established that Mayweather is the A-side in the negotiations, so he should be pretty much getting whatever he’s asking for in order to make the fight get signed.
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