By CARLO L. PAMINTUAN
The cat is out of the bag. Representatives from Manny Pacquiao’s camp have admitted that there have been talks with Floyd Mayweather’s camp. It wasn’t anything formal; just guys talking about trying to make the fight happen in the future.
Personally, I’ve had it with the Pacquiao-Mayweather negotiations. Twice I expected that the two best fighters in the world will finally meet and twice my heart broke because they just can’t agree on the terms.
In the first negotiations, Mayweather demanded Olympic-style drug testing, Pacquiao asked for a cutoff. Mayweather declined.
In the second, Pacquiao agreed to the seven-day cutoff and Bob Arum sent Mayweather the contract but they never got it back.
The blame was shared equally among all participants in the beginning.
Initially, Pacquiao took most of the hits for not agreeing to the Olympic-style drug testing. Then the boxing world realized that the whole thing was a bluff from Mayweather’s camp. Pacquiao continued to fight while Mayweather went on a long vacation. It’s no surprise that Mayweather takes most of the blame now.
However, the fact that Arum represented Pacquiao and Golden Boy Promotions represented Mayweather was a major road block. Saying that those two entities disliked each other is a major understatement.
Now, Arum is claiming that the key to making the fight is the world-famous promoter, Don King. He used to be the top promoter in the business but since the drop in the quality of heavyweight fighters, King has been promoting fewer fights.
Arum and King used to be bitter rivals but they now attribute it to friendly competition to prove who the better promoter was. But now, the two are working together. They are promoting a fight between Miguel Cotto, a Top Rank fighter, and Ricardo Mayorga, a Don King fighter.
Arum is all praises for King. He went as far as saying that if King represented Mayweather, the mega fight will be much easier to make.
While I think that negotiations between Arum and King will turn out be far easier compared to the earlier negotiations, I do not think King is the key.
I’m a firm believer that the ball is totally in Mayweather’s court. If he wanted to fight Pacquiao, we’ll all be talking about a possible rematch by this time.
Even if I’m not totally sold on the idea of King being the catalyst in making the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, I can’t help but be giddy at the possibility of seeing the two best boxers of our era fight under a card that was promoted by two of the best promoters ever. -- OMG, GMA News
