It may be more of an omen than a historical turning point but I do believe that HBO’s landing the Juan Manuel Marquez-Manny Pacquiao could give impetus, starting on Nov. 13, for the making of the so called Dream Fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Pacman.
If you beat me, whip me, and require me to say how the inclusion of HBO into the Mayweather-Pacquiao picture improves the prospects of the bout actually getting put together, I would say about 15 to 20 percent more likely.
Mayweather-Pacquiao is never going to get made if you leave it completely up to the warring parties, meaning Floyd’s team headed by ubiquitous Al Haymon and Pacquiao’s team captained by the irascible Bob Arum.
No thinking person involved in the Lollapalooza can possibly believe that the worldwide public gives a flying fig about who handles, who supervises and who grades the random drug testing for both superstar boxers.
Arum recently conceded to me that he really now sees no major issue which can keep the fight from happening as soon as may of 2012.
Which is where HBO executives Michael Lombardo and Richard Plepler come in. They need to throw their weight around and their corporate exchequer makes them super heavyweights when it comes to buying any entertainment product, be it movie, documentary, drama series of sporting event.
