Floyd Mayweather Jr. blamed Manny Pacquiao's promoter, Top Rank, for holding up the potential fight. Mayweather also called Pacquiao a "pawn" and indicated their potential fight wasn't close to being agreed upon.
If you believe Pacquiao, then the long-awaited Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is just waiting on Mayweather to sign the contract to make it happen.
"We are waiting for the contract signing," Pacquiao told ABS-CBN News. "I mean it's that close to make that fight happen. My promoter and I we agreed already to all the terms and conditions that he wants to do. We are just waiting for the contract from them."
Mayweather, though, denied Pacquiao's claim and called him a pawn.
"Pacquiao said that he agreed to everything. What did you agree to? You have no say," Mayweather said during a call to "The Hollywood Shuffle," via ABS-CBN. "You have a boss. That's called Top Rank Promotions. That's not called Pacquiao Promotions. With my company, it's called Mayweather Promotions. ... You (Pacquiao) don't have nothing to do with this. You're not a boss. On the chess board, you're a pawn."
Mayweather did acknowledge the two sides were in negotiations, but the holdup was due to Top Rank being difficult to work with.
"Do I want to fight Pacquiao? Absolutely! Are we negotiating? Absolutely! But has the fight been made? Not at all," said Mayweather. "... We're trying, but it's been extremely difficult dealing with Top Rank. I don't want to sit right here and point the finger at Pacquiao and say it's him, because it's not Pacquiao. It's his promoter."
Mayweather has said he would retire after his next two fights. The speculation is Mayweather, who's undefeated, will fight Pacquiao once in May and have a rematch in September before hanging up his gloves.
