PRINCE Amir Shafipour, a fight promoter from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is hoping to accomplish what Top Rank and Golden Boy just could not seem to pull off?get Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. to finally fight each other.
Shafipour told the Dubai-based Gulf News, that he is ?dead serious? in making the fight happen and he plans to bring the two warriors to the Middle East to fulfill the dreams of millions of boxing fans who want to see the much-awaited megabuck match.
?I will honestly and truthfully tell you that if anyone can convince them to fight, and to fight in Dubai, I can,? a confident Shafipour said. ?I have a lot of worldwide connections, with managers, promoters, fighters, people in the business, who speak the same language that Mayweather and Pacquiao are speaking.?
Top Rank founder Bob Arum and his counterparts at Oscar de la Hoya?s Golden Boy Promotions have tried but failed several times to book a Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown?purse split and drug-testing protocol being the main issues of concern for Mayweather (46-0, with 26 knockouts) and Pacquiao (56-5-2, with 38 KOs).
Shafipour, however, believes he can make it happen.
?You have to be on the same page as them and only then will you get their attention,? he said. ?I am currently working with a major boxing promoter in the USA, who is connected to both the Pacquiao and Mayweather camps, and who has the capacity to help me pull this off. It?s not a boast, it?s a commitment.?
He added that Pacquiao and Mayweather know that a lot of boxing fans want to see them fight.
?And which fighter does not want to give what the world wants? I know many people have failed to bring them to the ring, for many reasons, but I believe that we have the formula to make it happen. And then the whole boxing scene will explode,? he added. Jonathan Perez
