Pacquiao v Mayweather talks hanging on a thread
The negotiations for the Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jnr super-dooper-mega-fight are now underway, but it’s being treated more delicately than a bomb-disposal expert with a nuclear warhead and a bad case of the shakes.
In such a tentative situation any minor thing could cause pandemonium, but it would seem talks are actually now advancing.
Sticking points remain the blood testing and the way the purse is split. It would seem Pacquiao’s camp want a 14-day cut off and a 50/50 split where Mayweather favours a random test and a larger purse.
“Pacman” confirmed to local press in the Philippines that things were progressing "Nag-uusap pa rin ang mga promoter naming," said the WBO champ, which obviously translates as “Our promoters are still discussing.”
I bet the two fighters are getting sick of being asked about it themselves. How many times a day do you think they have to answer that inevitable query?
Not sure what the blood testing situation now is. Last word was that Pacquiao says he'll do the 14 days but no more. Why he didn’t take that when it was offered to him for the prospective March fight I don’t know and why he can’t just do it whenever is also annoying. It’s just a drop of blood and the same for both fighters.
The splits a tricky one. Pacquiao goes in as a championship belt holder, but Mayweather argues that he brings more of clout in terms of fans. In the USA where the numbers matter it would seem Pacquiao v Joshua Clottey sold 700,000 PPV buys where Mayweather’s fight against Shane Mosley got 1.4million.
But we are talking a bigger name in “Sugar Shane”, for instance in Pacman's fight with the better known Miguel Cotto sold 1.25million PPVs, plus the overall worldwide figures for Mayweather v Pacquiao fight will incorporate a lot more Pacman fans in the Far East. So a 50-50 split would seem the fairest option, but it’s going to make billions of pounds regardless, it’s not like anyone is going to be crying into their charity soup if that 10% slides.
It is starting to feel a bit like whenever anything goes wrong it all gets levelled at Mayweather. It seems if Pacquiao makes a demand Mayweather doesn’t relent, its Mayweather’s fault. If Mayweather makes a demand and Pacquiao doesn’t relent, its Mayweather’s fault, despite the fact neither have agreed anything it is Mayweather who is accused of ducking, not Pacquiao. The truth is he has been relatively silent on the whole matter.
Of course he has a track record of being nuisance, but all he’s really said about this is he wants Pacquiao to take the blood and urine test, and although he is taking the law of the sport into his own hands it’s not that unreasonable to prove the fight is clean, in many ways it’s a fairly noble gesture and its going to be the same for both fighters anyway. If he continues to get accusations levelled at him it would be no surprise to just seem him wash his hands of the whole thing, he’s retired before and it wouldn’t be a shock to see him do it again.
Most of the chat is emerging from the camps as they both are obviously back their boys. Freddie Roach looks increasingly sick of things and just wants to get on with it
While the amusing Mayweather brigade have announced they could have done a better job with Pacquiao and he won’t cause their boy any troubles. Interestingly Mayweather Snr said that the only fighter out there that could bother his son is Paul Williams.“Mr Avoided” himself would certainly be a tricky customer for Mayweather with his long frame. Poor old Williams, he even gets avoided in fantasy match-ups.
Good news is though that Bob Arum has said that they could probably have the fight in Las Vegas instead of the proposed Cowboys stadium in Texas as this was a contractual stumbling block. So that’s one aspect down.
Who knows what will happen next, we will probably make it all the way through then they will fall out over the size of the gloves and the whole thing will collapse.
Time to sort it now guys.
Oh the joys of mega-fights.
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