Have Mayweather and Pacquiao negotiations hit a snag? According to Bob Arum, the promoter of Manny Pacquiao believes that they have. Worst of all, it seems like time is running out for a potential super fight to take place on the proposed May 2nd date.
Arum spoke to ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael and in the column, it seems like there is a major concern on the part of Arum.
“The thing that really concerns me is that we are running out of time for May 2, “Arum told ESPN. “If you want to drag this out a little longer then move the fight to later in May — May 30 is a good date — or go in June. We agreed to go on May 2 because that is the date Mayweather is hung up on, but if we’re going to go on May 2 we need to get this done.”
When the two fighters met at a Heat-Bucks game last week, many took it as a sign that the fight was extremely close because the two had met privately in Pacquiao’s hotel room afterward. But Arum feels that things that should be hashed out should not be dragged out this long.
“There are issues that should be solved in 10 minutes, but its a slow dance,” Arum said. “We send one draft to their side and their lawyer sends back a draft with something else that’s an issue. And there doesn’t seem to be any urgency about it on their side. It’s terrible.”
While Mayweather has said there are no contracts, Arum has said to be working with CBS head honcho Les Moonves. Whether you can believe him or not is a thing to be said but according to Arum he is working with Moonves to make the fight happen.
“I’ve asked Les to expeditiously handle the points there are issues with,” said Arum, who declined to go into the specific issues. “Moonves can handle it. The question is whether the Mayweather side will listen to him. If they’re sincere about trying to make the fight it shouldn’t be an issue or are they playing a game? I don’t know. I go back and forth. I thought they were always playing a game, that Floyd didn’t want the fight.”
Arum may be skeptical of Mayweather wanting the fight, but many are skeptical about Arum’s motives in making this fight or not. Last week Arum was on the Sirius XM radio show, “Going the Distance” where he admitted fault in promoting Mayweather and telling the New York Post that the fight was, “imminent”.
But as we’ve come to know with these negotiations, it’s never easy, especially when two separate networks are involved. So could the networks be the real snag?
“No No, that’s bullshit,” is what Arum told ThaBoxingVoice.com’s Nestor Gibbs in a recent interview.
However according to the report by Rafael there are still issues to be ironed out on the network side. Rafael’s source says that Showtime is pushing for the same scenario that took place when Mike Tyson fought Lennox Lewis.
In the deal, Showtime agreed that the network whose fighter won the fight would get the replay rights and pay the other network $3 million. However, HBO wants that both networks simultaneously rebroadcast the fight.
So it seems that the dramatics continues to unfold, and that time might be running out for May 2nd.
