PACQUIAO VS MAYWEATHER : LET THE TALKS BEGIN
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 24 Nov 2009
The first punch towards the formal negotiations for a mega-fight pitting Filipino sensation Manny Pacquiao and American hero Floyd Mayweather Jr. was believed to have been thrown Monday when Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer flew to Las Vegas to meet Top Rank's Bob Arum,.
Schaefer himself disclosed that he will be arranging a lunch meeting with Arum, who as head of Top Rank holds Pacquiao's fight in the United States, as soon as he arrived in that City of Sin.
The meeting, Schaefer told ESPN.com, is scheduled to be held at the MGM Grand, which has hosted several Pacquiao and Mayweather fights.
"Floyd and me want to see if we can get the fight done," said Schaefer, who, although adding that he doesn't have a promotional contract with Mayweather, has represented the boxer in his past three fights. He said he, too, was asked to represent him in these talks.
"The fact that I am flying to Las Vegas to meet with Bob shows you how serious our side is about making the fight, he said as quoted by ESPN?s Dan Rafael.
Arum, Rafael, continued, confirmed the planned meeting, adding though that there?s nothing definite as to what will be the nitty-gritty of the subjects to be discussed.
"I can confirm I am meeting with Richard, but I'm not going to talk about the specifics," Arum said. "It's a meeting where we will try to make the fight. Whether it can be made or not in this meeting, I don't know. We'll see what we will see."
As far as Schaefer is concerned, he expressed hopes he and the Top Rank top honcho can make the negotiations realized quickly, rather than dragging the talks out for weeks.
"As part of the negotiations both Bob and I had to agree to keep all discussions confidential," Schaefer said. "No further comments will be made until such time that we either have a deal or the negotiations fall apart."
"Bob and I will approach this without egos and try to get it done under fair terms,? Schaefer assured. ? Floyd gave me his marching orders and I will see today how it goes and report back."
The ?Dream Fight? betweens Pacquiao, today?s pound-for-pound king and holder of a record seven world titles in as manay weight divisions, and Mayweather, the former P4P best, is seen the biggest fight boxing has to offer the past several decades and could break all sorts of revenue records.
In the year's biggest fight Saturday last week, Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) dethroned Miguel Cotto as World Boxing Organization welterweight champion via a 12th round technical knockout. Reports are that the fight sold 1.25 million units on pay-per-view and generated more than $70 million in domestic television revenue.
Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs), the former welterweight champ and pound-for-pound king before a short-lived retirement, returned on Sept. 19 to dominate lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez in a lopsided unanimous decision. That fight generated 1.05 million buys on pay-per-view.
The all-time pay-per-view record is the 2.44 million buys generated by Mayweather's 2007 win against Oscar De La Hoya.
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