The more Floyd Mayweather’s name comes up in connection with a fight against Matthew Hatton, and Manny Pacquiao’s name is floated as a potential opponent for Yuri Foreman, the clearer it becomes that a somewhat larger group could become disenfranchised by it all.
Namely, everyone else.
The Mayweather-Pacquiao talks are high-level negotiations, although it remains unclear to what extent there are negotiations or talks ongoing at all.
The conceptual fight has crossed into mainstream without the principals even agreeing to it.
Sportswriters and athletes drop it into columns and casual conversation, as if everyone knows what’s going on, because pretty much everyone does.
Yankee Stadium has been eliminated as a potential site because of taxation issues. The Louisiana Superdome is an outside candidate because the governor there would consider waiving state taxes if the fight goes to New Orleans. Cowboys Stadium is interested enough that Jerry Jones, owner of the football team, called promoter Bob Arum about placing the fight before a six-figure crowd in Dallas.
And then there is Las Vegas, which clearly does not plan to get shut out as a site candidate, amid talks that a large temporary stadium could be constructed on a former casino site in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip.
Meantime, here are the two fights growing closer to reality with each passing week:
Mayweather vs. The Wrong Hatton -- Matthew, brother of Ricky, the latter of whom the Grand Rapids native knocked out in 2007 before pseudo-retiring -- probably in February, probably in England.
And Pacquiao vs. The Wrong Foreman -- no, not George, but Yuri, who just won a 154-pound paper title and whose schtick is that he’s an aspiring rabbi and actively involved in rabbinical studies -- probably in March, possibly in Dallas.
I might be able to dissect those fights for you, if only I could stop yawning.
Are you kidding? The one time in recent history that the general sports world not only has clamored for boxing, but for a specific fight -- not in the future, but right now -- and instead of making the one fight everyone wants to see, the two sides might make two fights absolutely no one wants to see?
When people say boxing is killing itself, they ignore the fact that Mayweather and Pacquiao, in the course of less than two months, both did pay-per-view shows with seven-figure buy rates.
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When the only two men capable of seven-figure buys can’t reach agreement, then boxing really is killing itself.
Seven-figure sellers rarely happen in pay-per-view, much less twice in two months. It is an achievement almost exclusively usually reserved for the biggest heavyweight fights and Oscar De La Hoya.
Since big heavyweight fights and De La Hoya both appear permanently retired, it is a treat to see something like Mayweather-Pacquiao -- a fight almost certain to break all existing boxing revenue records -- emerge into crossover markets.
If only it happens.
The financial split is the overriding hurdle but not the only one. Arum has insisted for months that Pacquiao’s aspirations to win a congressional election in The Philippines could wrench a potential Mayweather fight for any number of reasons; most recently, he told The Los Angeles Times that a May 1 fight could interfere with Pacquiao’s campaign, so a March interim fight might be better.
Seriously?
Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s adviser, only days ago said he could “discount” any possibility that his man would fight Hatton -- or anyone not named Shane Mosley, in the event these talks break down -- before Pacquiao.
Now, all those possibilities that seem so ridiculous seem equally probable.
If the powers involved in these negotiations can’t get this fight made, it is the biggest disservice boxing possibly could foist upon general sports fans.
And as rarely as general sports fans actually pay heed to the sport, why would they even bother again?
E-mail David Mayo at dmayo@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo
Source: mlive.com
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