Mayweather has announced in an interview on CBS/Showtime early last month that he has opted to face Pacquiao in the ring on May 2 but has not signed the fight contract until now.
For stalling the fight talks with his uncompromising stand on the terms of the fight contract, officials at the CBS/Showtime network has reportedly threatened to censure Mayweather if he does not fulfill his earlier announcement.
Mark Malinowki of ringobserver.com claims in his article that Mayweather’s adviser Al Haymon and Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza are now under pressure to get Mayweather make the official announcement following his televised statement that he will fight Pacquiao on May 2.
Malinowski refers to his unnamed source who stated that CBS head Les Moonves has reportedly given ultimatum to Espinoza, who heads Showtime Sports to make the fight happen.
In his article, Malinowski opined that both Epinoza and Haymon could be in trouble for failing to get Mayweather in the ring with Pacquiao.
“If he can’t deliver Floyd, Espinoza will be out of a job. And Haymon will also be out because the new boxing boss will not work with Haymon beyond the final two contracted Mayweather fights. So Haymon, already banned from HBO, will in effect be banned at Showtime.” Malinoski said.
Over the weekend Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times stated in his article that at least two major issues have been agreed in the ongoing talks between the two camps.
These include the venue of the fight which is the MGM Grand Garden Arena and the drug testing protocol which was one of the major issues in the five-year-old talks.
It appears that the purse sharing mechanism has not been established at this time but Pacquiao has stated that he is willing to accept a lower share for the sake of the fans who are begging for the fight to happen. Read more
Mounting pressure from both Showtime and Mayweather adviser Al Haymon could give Mayweather with very little choice but to address the last hurdle in the long-delayed fight negotiations.
From all indication, the last hurdle is the determination of the final arrangement on purse sharing.
Hopefully the fight contract would be signed during Pacquiao’s visit to the US before the end of this month.
