Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. are lucky.
There have been many great fighters, but few are ever fortunate enough to find themselves in the right time and place for the chance at a defining fight that won’t be forgotten or consigned to the trash bin of what could’ve been or should’ve been. Lots of fights are talked about, yet only happen in the imagination of geeks with computer games to design or barroom customers with a debate sure to continue after the hangover subsides.
Pacquiao-Mayweather is that rare opportunity. The public wants it. History demands it. An opening line in Las Vegas books favoring Pacquiao is a good bet that the public will get its way and history its day. A betting line without – or perhaps before — an agreement for the fight also is a sign that there will be plenty of money for everybody, even for Mayweather, who calls himself Money and often seems to need more than he has.
Only negotiations can get in the way. But that’s no small matter, especially when it involves a projected purse with more numbers than a stimulus package and various parties who measure their self-worth by the size of their share.
Fifty-fifty, half for Pacquiao and half for Mayweather, sounds fair. By definition, 50-50 is fair. But fair has about as much to do with boxing as charity has to do with gambling. Nobody gets into the fight game because they just want everybody to get along. It’s about getting an edge and it starts at the negotiating table.
Potential for problematic negotiations was already there Saturday night after Pacquiao’s brilliant 12th-round stoppage of Miguel Cotto at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. Chants of We want Floyd , We want Floyd from the capacity crowd still echoed through the building when Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach acknowledged that he too wanted a fight with Mayweather.
But, Roach said, “if Floyd wants a 65-35 split, he’s not going to get it.’’
OK, Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum quipped in a quick aside, “that what’s we’ll offer him.’’
In this one, 35 will only work as a speed limit on surface streets to and from the negotiations. Any lowball ball attempt from either party is going to fuel combustible rancor that is already there, ready and waiting to turn a chance at some real history into just another blown opportunity.
To begin with, Mayweather and Arum are about as friendly as a newly-divorced couple. Estranged doesn’t quite capture their anger and mistrust, which are the only two things they share. Arum also has said he won’t negotiate with either of Mayweather’s advisors, Leonard Ellerbe and Al Haymon. He calls them “Machiavellian’ almost as if he would rather deal with a reincarnation of Machiavelli himself.
Arum has said he would negotiate with Richard Schaefer, the chief executive for Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. In a possible test run, , Schaefer worked as Mayweather’s point man for the deal that resulted in his September decision over Juan Manuel Marquez and presumably will fill the same role in talks for the showdown with Pacquiao.
Arum and Schafer have worked together before, both as allies with De La Hoya and now as rivals. But they have never tried to put together a deal with the potential magnitude of Pacquiao-Mayweather. The stakes will only magnify any lingering tensions, and there are a few. Here are just two:
· Arum has never been shy about dismissing De La Hoya, now his promotional rival.
· Schaefer has been quick to criticize Arum, especially about his early and angry defense of Antonio Margarito after Margarito’s gloves were found to be loaded with a plaster-like substance before a loss to the Golden Boy-promoted Shane Mosley in January.
Those are just a couple of land mines threatening talks for Pacquiao-Mayweather. But there are also potential solutions if there is a blow-up, also a pretty good bet. They rest in the dangerous hands of the fighters themselves.
In a prepared statement Monday, Mayweather had a point when he said Pacquiao needed to speak for himself. Mayweather stated:
“Manny Pacquiao is the fighter and every time someone asks him if he wants to fight me, he says it is up to his promoter, he’s going to take a vacation, whatever the answer is. I have yet to hear him actually say, ‘yes I want to fight Mayweather.’ We are the fighters and if one fighter is talking about fighting another fighter, then they should just come out and say it. Manny Pacquiao doesn’t say anything directly about fighting me because he might just know it’s not a fight he can win. He said during an interview he did leading up to his fight that he didn’t think I wanted to fight him and that boxing for me was just a business and I wasn’t interested in a good fight. But again, he never said during that interview that he would fight me. Why is he talking about what I won’t do instead of what he wants to do? Plain and simple, it’s because he knows he can’t beat me under any circumstances.”
Mayweather’’ statement is noteworthy because it does not include, “ yes, I want to fight Pacquiao.”
Still, both need to tell each other and the public that they want the fight. Then, they need to tell their representatives that they’ll split the purse, 50-50. That will eliminate any percentage at eluding an opportunity that few ever get. They’ll both get rich anyway.
But an equal share in history will last a lot longer than anything they can buy.
Source: 15rounds.com
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