The Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight is supposedly being held up by Mayweather's camp, whom Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said is showing no "urgency" to get a deal done. Despite Mayweather and Pacquiao reportedly meeting recently in a hotel room and discussing the possible blockbuster fight, negotiations for a May 2 bout appear to have stalled.
If you listen to Pacquiao's camp, the only thing holding up the fight from happening is Mayweather. The two fighters reportedly met face-to-face in a hotel room and discussed the fight after coincidentally crossing paths Jan. 27 at a Miami Heat game. Although the face-to-face talks were positive, ESPN's Dan Rafael reported the talks have in the week since taken a step back.
"There are issues that should be solved in 10 minutes, but it's a slow dance," Arum told ESPN on Monday. "We send one draft to their side and their lawyer sends back a draft with something else that's an issue. And there doesn't seem to be any urgency about it on their side. It's terrible. ... If (Mayweather's side is) sincere about trying to make the fight it shouldn't be an issue, or are they playing a game? I don't know. I go back and forth.
"I thought they were always playing a game, that Floyd didn't want the fight. ... If people were really concentrating on this it could be done in no time."
One supposed holdup was HBO, with whom Pacquiao is signed. David Mayo of MLive Media Group suggested the network was trying to stall the bout until 2016, when Mayweather's contract with CBS-Showtime expires and HBO could then swoop in for the exclusive rights to the mega-fight. HBO, though, denied the claim in a statement Monday and put the onus on the fighters to make it happen.
"We are not an impediment to this fight. We stand ready to go," HBO's statement read, according to the New York Daily News. "The prinicipals need to agree to terms and come to a deal."
Arum indicated in September that HBO and Showtime had had positive discussions about doing a joint pay-per-view for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight and would be able to work out an arrangement between each other.
Arum, who has been negotiating with Mayweather Promotions through CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves, also said during Monday's interview with ESPN that he feared a May 2 fight wouldn't happen if Mayweather continued to delay agreeing to a deal.
"The thing that really concerns me is that we are running out of time for May 2," said Arum. "If you want to drag this out a little longer then move the fight to later in May -- May 30 is a good date -- or go in June. We agreed to go on May 2 because that is the date Mayweather is hung up on, but if we're going to go on May 2 we need to get this done."
Pacquiao originally gave Mayweather until Jan. 31 to agree to the fight, but he has since agreed to extend his self-imposed deadline. ESPN reported Pacquiao had agreed to a number of Mayweather's demands already, including: a 60-40 financial split in Mayweather's favor, drug testing under Mayweather's preferred method, the date, the site, the name of the fight and and even the ring introductions.
It's uncertain what the specific holdups are, but both sides would need to decide if they're fighting each other on May 2 in order to give Mayweather and Pacquiao sufficient time to begin training for the bout.
If the two sides don't come to an agreement, Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) reportedly has already met with Amir Khan about a potential fight on May 30, and Mayweather - who has said he plans to fight on May 2 regardless of Pacquiao - could consider fighting Miguel Cotto.
