In another expertly played production, because that’s what Manny Pacquiao’s brilliant promoter does, Floyd Mayweather next weekend will see the opposition-imposed deadline pass for a fight proposal that may be in no one’s best interest except for boxing fans and one U.S. television corporation, and again be labeled a coward by those who favor Pacquiao over him.
The word Pacquiao supporters will focus on is “coward,” as yet another Mayweather-Pacquiao proposal crumbles for May 2.
What others should focus on is that it’s not necessarily in the best interest of either Mayweather or Pacquiao to fight next ? plus several other entities connected to them, except for CBS/Showtime ? even though both fighters want the bout, and even though Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s aforementioned brilliant promoter, has said there is a financial agreement in place (a claim the Mayweather side neither has confirmed nor denied).
The Pacquiao side has parlayed this knowledge and some well-connected personal relationships into another public-relations coup, because competing television contracts will be the wedge that prohibits Mayweather-Pacquiao this time ? a conflict that could be resolved when Mayweather’s Showtime contract expires in 2016 ? even as Arum and Pacquiao worked with the rival network on a fight they knew wasn’t happening, as much because of their own network’s self-interests as Mayweather’s.
P.T. Barnum would envy such hoodwink.
Arum and CBS president Leslie Moonves, whose broadcast network has Showtime as its subscription subsidiary, are friends. Arum has exploited that strange-bedfellows relationship since early 2013, when he started mentioning publicly that he and Moonves were engaging back-channel discussions about Mayweather-Pacquiao, the biggest fight never made.
That Pacquiao has a contract with Showtime rival HBO, and that such network conflicts historically present near-impenetrable impasses that short-circuit fight negotiations before they even begin, hardly received mention. Floyd Mayweather has two fights left on his Showtime contract. Josh Slagter | MLive.com
But now that the most serious Mayweather-Pacquiao talks in the last five years have occurred, one of CBS/Showtime’s biggest risks when it signed Mayweather is just two fights and 11 months from reality: That there actually is a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, but only after CBS/Showtime’s contract with Mayweather expires this year.
When Pacquiao’s end-of-January deadline passes and another Mayweather proposal vanishes next weekend, CBS/Showtime could be reduced to one last chance to make the fight later this year. Its other option is a fat extension with Mayweather that, in turn, would keep a key barrier to the Pacquiao fight in place.
That should give Arum and Moonves some fat-chewing material next time the two chums get together to compare fight-blocking contracts.
When CBS/Showtime signed Mayweather away from Time Warner/HBO on a three-year, six-fight deal in 2013, it envisioned locking him up for the rest of his career ? including, presumably, a Pacquiao fight.
Now that 2015 has arrived with only slightly more promise of Mayweather-Pacquiao ? but demand hardly abated ? CBS/Showtime could risk losing both the fighter and the fight if it can’t deliver this year, in one of the two remaining bouts on its Mayweather contract, one of which is about to be against someone other than Pacquiao on May 2.
There have been discussions this month between Time Warner/HBO and CBS/Showtime about how they would handle television arrangements if they were to present Mayweather-Pacquiao this year, but if you’re Time Warner/HBO, why acquiesce? CBS/Showtime is the one facing the deadline. CBS/Showtime has the soon-to-expire contract with the biggest figure in boxing. CBS/Showtime has all the pressure to deliver now. Showtime exec Stephen Espinoza is under pressure to deliver Mayweather-Pacquiao sometime in 2015. Josh Slagter | MLive.com
In 2016, Mayweather could be a television free agent, all the more reason for Time Warner/HBO not to yield much in these talks.
Next year, the whole pie, not just pie charts, could be on the table.
Even then, only the biggest television hurdle to the fight is removed. What about Mexico, who gets the television there, Televisa (Mayweather) or TV Azteca (Pacquiao)? Who’s the beer sponsor, Corona (Mayweather) or Tecate (Pacquiao)? Both sides have engaged in exclusive contractual arrangements with companies that want to be on board if Mayweather-Pacquiao ever happens, all of which would have to be negotiated out, and none of which the principals want to breach. But it’s too easy just to blame this on the fighter/promoter with whom one doesn’t find favor, right?
The last time HBO and Showtime played nice on a major fight, Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson in 2002, came under markedly different circumstances. There was a major gap in the abilities of the fighters by then, favoring Lewis, who fought for HBO. But Tyson, who was with Showtime, was still the bigger name, and Lewis ? and, by extension, HBO ? needed the formal torch-passing. Tyson needed the money and Showtime needed to cash him out. Everyone was on board. The result was the richest fight ever until that time, later surpassed by two Mayweather fights, vs. Oscar De La Hoya in 2007 and the 2014 record-breaker vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
In this application, 47-0 Mayweather is both the bigger draw and, to what degree their talents have diminished, has retained more of his skills than 57-5-2 Pacquiao, who was knocked cold just more than two years ago by Juan Manuel Marquez and has taken few risks since.
Nevertheless, Pacquiao still can earn massive paydays by comparison to any fighter except Mayweather, and can do so without Mayweather, so taking a fight out of career-ending desperation isn’t part of the equation yet.
If it ever comes to that, what’s left could be more execution than legitimate contest between peers, i.e., Lewis vs. Tyson.
The biographical implication of not fighting Pacquiao matters to Mayweather, regardless the often convoluted and shifting reasons for it. But legacy and good business timing needn’t be mutually exclusive, and Mayweather’s television network soon could be one fight removed from lame-duck contractual status, with only the biggest fight in history left to make.
There also is a new 20,000-seat arena under construction on Las Vegas Boulevard, expected to be completed by early 2016. It long has been speculated that Mayweather-Pacquiao would be an ideal fit for the new venue, which would seat about 4,000 more for boxing than MGM Grand Garden Arena, where Mayweather has fought exclusively since 2007.
In the interim, Mayweather’s backup plans always have been better than Pacquiao’s, and if it happens that he fights Miguel Cotto next for the lineal middleweight championship in a legitimate 160-pound fight ? no catchweight ? Pacquiao can’t alter that equation. Mayweather-Cotto in 2012 was a good fight at 154 pounds (and Mayweather’s last with HBO), and the heavier weight would benefit Cotto in the rematch.
And Pacquiao can continue to fight more Macau-based thrillers against the likes of Chris Algieri and Brandon Rios.
Maybe the two sides eventually get their acts together and make Mayweather-Pacquiao.
Maybe if they do, it even proves to be something more than two old pugs cashing out at the end of the line ? or, worse, one old pug.
But that won’t happen until it makes sense for everyone involved, which probably means 2016 is the last, best chance for Mayweather-Pacquiao, with a big new arena and open television bidding to use to their advantage.
? David Mayo has covered Floyd Mayweather throughout the boxer’s career. Contact him at [email protected].
