With time not on their side, some notable events took place Thursday concerning the hopeful May 2 super-fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
All along one of the biggest issues was said to be the way the bout would be produced for pay-per-view and Thursday saw news break that an agreement is almost in place if the fight does come to fruition.
Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times reported that Showtime and HBO have just about come to an agreement on how the fight that would be aired May2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The tentative fight night talent lineup would be for CBS/Showtime: Jim Brown as host, with Al Bernstein serving as lead analyst and Jim Gray conducting fighter interviews. From the HBO side it would feature Jim Lampley as play-by-play broadcaster, with Max Kellerman conducting fighter interviews.
That lineup would give fight fans the best-of-the-best as far as boxing on-screen talent goes. Pugmire also suggested that both networks would air a replay of the bout on their respective networks, although that was not finalized just yet.
Secondly, Top Rank CEO, Bob Arum, told the AP that half of the issues remaining to be ironed out for the fight to take place were taken care of.
““We had four issues and we resolved two,” Arum said. “Now we’re working on resolving the other two. Unless something else comes up at the last minute, that’s what my take is.”
The LA Times article got an additional quote from Arum on the topic stating, “I believe the issues are being resolved – everything.”
Lastly, Floyd Mayweather himself took to the social media platform, Shots (which he partly owns), to set the record straight to where the negotiations sit as of Thursday.
Mayweather explained that he is not the reason why the negotiations have not yet yielded a bout, despite what Arum might say, despite a face-to-face meeting with Pacquiao.
“I set up this meeting with Manny Pacquiao to get this fight done but they will continue to tell the public it’s us and that’s NOT TRUE,” Mayweather explained on Shots.
So, it appears despite the quietness before today, that the Mayweather-Pacquiao mega-fight still has a shot at being made.
But with the clock ticking away toward May 2, the bout must be signed in within the next week-to-10 days in order for the bout to have it’s proper lead up. That would likely include a worldwide press tour, major commercial advertisement, TV appearances, media workouts and conference calls with media.
So before all hope is lost from boxing fans worldwide, playing the waiting game one last time might be worth it in the end. As it appears that things are still moving in a positive direction, with May 2 looking like the time that we might finally see who the best of the last decade really is.
