Though his many legal issues have still to be resolved before Floyd “Money” Mayweather can even think of boxing again (his court appearance pushed back to April now), the entire boxing world refuses to give up on the idea of one day seeing a mega-fight between he and Manny Pacquiao. Right now, in conjunction with one another, legendary promoters and one-time bitter rivals Don King and Bob Arum are thinking of how they can make the biggest fight in all of boxing today. And if the combined know-how of King AND Arum cannot get the clash made, then forget it!
King has Floyd’s ear; Arum promotes Pac-Man. Working together is now very much a doable thing for the two veterans, too (together, the two put on tonight’s Miguel Cotto-Ricardo Mayorga fight in Las Vegas) and maybe, just maybe, they will be able to pull out all the stops and get this thing on. King, who rose to global fame with the work he did in putting together the heavyweight mega-fight that was 1974’s Muhammad Ali-George Foreman “Rumble in The Jungle,” likes the idea of a three-day musical festival accompanying Pacquiao-Mayweather. As fans know, a musical event accompanied Ali-Foreman, with legends such as James Brown performing free for the fans. King wants today’s musical stars, such as 50-Cent (Floyd’s best buddy!) and Jay-Z to do their thing for this huge boxing occasion.“Well, there is every possibility, every possibility, if we can get the stars to be a part of it and be a part of the people,” King said to The Manila Times. “We represent the masses not the classes; but we unify the masses and the classes.”
And Arum is also very much hoping the super-fight can be signed, sealed and delivered.
“I firmly wish it would happen,” he said. “If Don and I were promoting that fight, it would be something that would remembered 100 years from now. We would make this entire planet stop. All the wars and all the conflicts in the world - there would at least be a truce.”
Arum isn’t exaggerating. If the two best P-4-P stars on the planet locked horns on a glitzy stage accompanied by the kind of musical festival King envisages, who wouldn’t watch it? More importantly to the two worldly promoters: who wouldn’t PAY to watch it? Mayweather-Pacquiao, Pacquiao-Mayweather; whichever way around you want it - would be staggeringly big. Just like Ali-Foreman, Leonard-Hearns and all the other classics Arum and King have worked on were.
King and Arum together, smiling and doing great business together without any nastiness aimed at the other is a quite amazing thing to see. If these two can be paired together with such lack of ill feeling, surely Manny and Floyd can be persuaded to come together also and sign on for the fight the entire planet wants to see!
Source: eastsideboxing.com
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