Pacquiao, Mayweather courtside in Miami
The best pound for pound fighters in boxing were sitting courtside, pretty much directly across from one another at the game between the Miami Heat and the Milwaukee Bucks. At halftime, with all eyes on them, Mayweather made his way over to Pacquiao and, for the first time ever, the two met.
They shook hands and exchanged cell phone numbers. When reporters later asked Mayweather if it meant they’d do some negotiating between just the two of them, Mayweather’s people said it wasn’t the right time for him to talk. Not so Pacquiao, when asked the same thing he said yes, it did.
“He gave his number to me and said we will communicate with each other,” the Pac-Man told reporters.
As every boxing fan on Earth knows by now, these two fighters have been fighting in the media, each blaming the other boxer, or the other boxer’s management team, for not getting a contract signed for them to fight, a fight multiple reports say would go, if it goes at all, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 2.
Again as fight fans know, it’s not the first time their camps have tried to get them together and their failure to agree to fight five years ago was named by Ring magazine as boxing’s “Event of the Year” in 2010. The potential fight between the two actually has it own Wiki page.
Boxing hype – or happenstance?
Were they at the arena in Miami by chance? Or was it a staged meeting to provide yet more hype for the Fight of the Century? Given boxing is known for hype — it was perfected by the great Muhammad Ali — anything is possible. But given the fight is expected to get over 3 million pay-per-view buys and be the richest in history hype may seem superfluous. Still, the arena put shots of each up on the giant screen with the caption: “Coming in 2015?”
But for the record Pacquiao, known for being a basketball fan, was in Miami to judge the 63rd Miss Universe Pageant Sunday then due to the inclement weather his flight was cancelled, so he went to the game. While Mayweather lives in Las Vegas, he too is a big NBA fan and is often at games in Los Angeles and Miami.
The next time they meet will be, basketball fans hope, show time.
