So, what?s the hold-up? That question regarding the status of a Floyd Mayweather bout, this time with Manny Pacquiao, seems all too familiar.
In the current melodrama, Pacquiao?s meeting with Mayweather last week at a Miami Heat basketball game, the assertions of Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum that there has been agreement to terms, and even the assertion of HBO that it isn?t an impediment to (Showtime?s being the broadcaster of) the fight, may all be true indications a fight will take place. But the bottom line is that there is no contract.
What?s going on? I don?t exactly know. But here?s what was going on two years ago at this time, when Mayweather?s bout with Robert Guerrero was similarly uncertain.
The following is an excerpt from ?The Kingpin Trio,? my book about Guerrero, Andre Ward and Nonito Donaire:
?What?s the hold-up??
That was the question, with Robert Guerrero and Floyd Mayweather Jr. still unsigned as of late January for a May 4 bout that for two months had seemed a fait accompli.
It was so close to reportable that San Francisco Chronicle sports editor Al Saracevic and his deputies waved me into Al?s office during one of my weekday copy desk shifts so we could decide whether it was time to announce the fight in print. ESPN was announcing the matchup on its crawl. It was certainly out there. But were there signed contracts?On the record?
Minutes earlier, I had been trying to craft acceptable attribution to that effect from Team Guerrero, only to be told that might spook Mayweather.
By newspapers standards, the five of us in Al?s office agreed, there was too little, too soon, to report. This was boxing, after all.
So, what was the hold-up?
There was a reason all the trepidation concerning Mayweather seemed increasingly euphemistic. These were references and deferences to promoter-manager Al Haymon, the reclusive power behind the throne.
The hold-up was that Haymon, who has branched into boxing after becoming the most successful rock-concert impresario of all time, was putting the details of Mayweather?s unprecedented six-fight, $300 million deal with Showtime in place. The Guerrero fight couldn?t be unveiled until the Showtime deal was complete.
The Mayweather-Guerrero fight was finally unveiled on Feb. 19, 2013, so don?t be so sure that it?s currently too late for a May 2, 2015 meeting between Mayweather and Pacquiao.
But don?t make too much of what you hear ? or don?t hear ? in the meantime before a contract is actually signed.
