Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao ? a fight that would be the richest showdown in the history of boxing ? could be days away from becoming reality, said Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports. Negotiations are more than halfway complete, he said.
But there are still details to be worked out before contracts can be finalized.
“There are issues between the fighters and promoters and the networks,” said Espinoza, an El Paso native. “But we have been making good progress, and hopefully, within a few days, maybe we’ll have something positive to report.”
Mayweather and Pacquiao lit up social media Tuesday when they ran into each other at a Miami Heat game. They spoke briefly at halftime ? the first time the future Hall-of-Famers had ever spoken in person ? and exchanged phone numbers. Afterward, Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz said Mayweather visited Pacqiuao at his hotel in Miami, where they talked for more than an hour.
“Just when we thought we’d seen everything in the course of the negotiations, they run into each other and have a conversation,” Espinoza said. “It’s an interesting coincidence.”
It gave boxing fans long skeptical that Mayweather-Pacquiao would actually take place a jolt of hope. Advertisement
The fight, which has become infamous for its inability to get made, was first negotiated in 2009, and on the brink of completion. But the two camps could not agree on a drug testing protocol, and negotiations unraveled. Since then, the fight has hit one roadblock after another, causing untold friction between a host of players: Espinoza’s Showtime and rival HBO; promoters Golden Boy Promotions (which promotes Mayweather’s fights), Top Rank (Pacquiao’s promoter), influential boxing power broker Al Haymon (a Mayweather adviser); and, of course, the fighters themselves.
Yet it remains the most anticipated fight in boxing because both are the most dominant fighters of their generations.
Twitter went berserk at the mere sight of Mayweather and Pacquiao speaking.
“I think this is the closest we’ve gotten to having the fight since the first time we negotiated (in 2009),” Espinoza said.
Mayweather, considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing for the last several years, has often taken the brunt of the criticism for the fight not coming to fruition. Arum has publicly stated that negotiations from the Pacquiao side are complete and the contracts were awaiting Mayweather’s signature.
Espinoza said that was “absolutely not true.”
“I can only speculate that he’s trying to put public pressure on Floyd,” Espinoza said of Arum.
“As we saw very clearly (Tuesday night), when Floyd initiated the conversation, no one needs to pressure Floyd into this fight. Floyd wants this fight very much himself.
“Any criticisms of Floyd not wanting it this go-around are completely unwarranted. Ever since we started this conversation, Floyd has told us he wants it. He has instructed us to do everything in our power to get it done.
He hasn’t been as vocal as the people who run Manny Pacquiao’s Twitter account or as vocal as Bob Arum. Because it is a sensitive negotiation, and he knows things are more productive if we didn’t speak much about the negotiations. He doesn’t want any spat or feud to take place publicly to get in the way of making this fight.”
Arum, who was traveling Thursday and could not be reached for comment, agrees that discussions are moving in a positive direction.
“I cannot assure you that it will happen, but, certainly, with this development in Miami, and from what I know about the finalization of papers and everything, I have to be optimistic,” Arum told reporter Ronnie Nathanielsz.
Espinoza says talks between all of the camps have been mostly positive and collegial.
“There’ve been a few flare-ups along the way. But I think that’s natural when you’ve got so many complex issues and negotiations taking place against a long history of contentious conversation,” he said.
