Will the world finally see a Pacquiao-Mayweather bout next year?
During the rounds of promotions being done by the camp of Manny Pacquiao for his November 22 fight against Chris Algieri, he and his promoter Bob Arum managed to take some time off from their busy schedule to talk about the possibility of having a showdown with the current pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr.
According to Pacquiao and Arum, the highly-anticipated superfight may possibly happen in 2015 and they were confident that a deal will be made between the parties of both boxers any time soon.
Mayweather is currently under a network deal under Showtime, while Pacquiao signed up with HBO. Arum said that he is very confident that the two networks can come up with a special arrangement to organize the fight. If it pushes through, the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight could break all records on pay-per-view history.
In the past, Showtime and HBO have managed to come up with a joint promotion when Mike Tyson and Lennow Lewis staged a major heavyweight title bout. In that fight, Tyson was under contract with Showtime while Lewis was with the rival HBO.
According to Arum, the only thing that stops the fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather is the latter's unwillingness to take a deal that would be fair for Pacquiao.
"With Showtime wanting the fight and HBO wanting it and Manny and Top Rank wanting the fight, there is one little step to take and that's to see where Floyd stand and we're optimistic that this time, Floyd will bite the bullet and do the fight on equitable terms," Arum told the Philippine-based website Manila Bulletin. "They (HBO and Showtime) can find a way to promote and satisfy both sides from a legal basis," he added.
Even Pacquiao feel that Mayweather had no choice since Showtime will put a lot of pressure on him. "He doesn't have a choice but to accept," Pacquiao said.
