After nearly five years of failed negotiations, is the much-lusted-after fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao close to happening? Well, if you believe Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, it?s closer to reality that it?s been in quite some time.
Arum, speaking to GMA News on Tuesday in advance of Pacquiao?s WBO welterweight title fight Saturday night against Chris Algieri in Macau, said CBS Chairman Less Moonves is spearheading negotiations to get the two fighters into the ring.
?The networks are now already talking,? said Arum less than a week before Pacquiao climbs the ring against the up-and-coming Chris Algieri at Cotai Arena inside the sprawling The Venetian Macau here.
?I am now more optimistic that the fight is going to happen than I was three or four years ago. I am talking to responsible people who are in touch with the Mayweather guys. All of these people have the ability to move it ahead and make it happen.?
CBS owns Showtime, which has a six-fight deal with Mayweather. Pacquiao, meanwhile, is under contract with HBO. Per GMA News, the two pay-TV networks last collaborated on a PPV title bout in 2002, when Lennox Lewis knocked out Mike Tyson in the eighth round.
If the two welterweight title holders finally do get together, they?re going to need a fairly large arena. Arum says they might have one lined up.
?If it happens, we?re considering the Cowboys Stadium,? he told GMA News. ?It is the only venue which has the capacity to host a big show such as the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight.?
AT&T Stadium in Irving, Tex., can fit 105,000 people if expanded to include standing-room-only tickets. Pacquiao has twice fought there: He scored a unanimous decisions over Antonio Margarito in November 2010, drawing 41,734, and Joshua Clottey eight months earlier, drawing a paid crowd of 36,371.
If it happens, some are estimating that the fight could bring in $1 billion, thanks in part to PPV buys in China.
