Contrary to a recent report by Tim Smith of the New York Daily News, negotiations for a potential showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are extremely far from heating up. According to Smith, it's the only conclusion one can draw after Pacquiao's advisor, Michael Koncz, accompanied by a group of people allegedly representing potential investors, made an impromptu to stop at Mayweather's gym in Las Vegas some time last week. While it's true that Koncz did indeed visit Mayweather, the much more likely purpose of the meeting was simply to create the illusion to Manny Pacquiao that both he and promoter Bob Arum are doing everything in their power to give him the fight with Mayweather that he wants. As time passes, they will eventually tell Pacquiao that Mayweather doesn't want to fight because he's asking for too much money, using that meeting as proof that "negotiations" actually took place, and instead convince him to move forward with a fourth fight against Marquez.
According to sources who were in attendance at the gym when the meeting took place, Mayweather had absolutely no idea who Michael Koncz was until he introduced himself as Pacquiao's advisor. After the introduction, a brief conversation took place before Koncz, like a fan, asked to take pictures with Mayweather. "He was cheesin' like one of Floyd's biggest fans," said one source. It's pretty ironic that Koncz would even want to take a picture with Mayweather considering that earlier this year, in an interview with FightHype.com, he stated, "I don't like the guy as a human being." Nevertheless, for whatever reason, Koncz stood next to a man that he dislikes as a human being and smiled for the camera. It says here that the picture will be provided to Manny Pacquiao as proof positive that a meeting to negotiate the fight did indeed take place.
In a related story, Nick Giongco of The Manila Bulletin reports that Bob Arum informed him that he's currently having discussions with investment groups who are "also in talks with Mayweather" about the possibility of staging the fight. Arum would also reveal that "Mayweather is going solo", suggesting that the undefeated pound-for-pound champion does not want Golden Boy Promotions involved at all in negotiations. The comments from Arum, however, couldn't be further from the truth and are rather interesting considering the stance he took just two weeks ago. Shortly after Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer revealed that he was informed that Top Rank was not interested in negotiating a fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao, Arum lashed out in anger. "You have to sit down like adults and spend a few days and iron out all the issues," Arum would tell Lem Satterfield of RingTv.com. "I'm not going to negotiate through the media. The only the place I'm going to negotiate is in a closed room."
Apparently, the "closed room" that Arum was referring to was Mayweather's gym, and given the information he recently provided to Nick Giongco, he seems to have changed his mind about negotiating in the media. The reality of the situation is that the only man who can speak on Manny Pacquiao's behalf when it comes to negotiations is his promoter, Bob Arum, and thus far, Bob Arum hasn't spoken to the one man that he needs to speak to on Mayweather's side in order to make the fight a reality. Michael Koncz can't negotiate the fight solely for Pacquiao any more than Leonard Ellerbe can negotiate the fight solely for Mayweather. Speaking of Leonard Ellerbe, one has to wonder why Koncz was even meeting with Mayweather without Ellerbe in attendance. Nevertheless, sending Michael Koncz to Mayweather's gym with some investors is not a negotiation. It's simply a ruse, a ploy, a trick to make it seem like something that it's not.
In the coming weeks, I fully expect Bob Arum and Michael Koncz to continue their charade and deception, using unknowing journalists to spin their web of lies to make it seem as though they're coming extremely close to making the biggest fight in boxing. You'll probably hear a lot more about investors interested in staging the fight, which isn't even unusual as I'm sure both camps get offers all the time. In fact, I too have personally been approached by investors looking to make the fight; one group earlier this year and another group just last week, both looking for someone to help them "facilitate the funding of this event". Arum has used the excuse of Mayweather turning down investors in the past and I suspect he'll use that excuse once again. This time, however, he appears to be taking it a step further, having Koncz actually meet with Mayweather, present the investors to him and take pictures as proof.
The point is, no, Mayweather is not "going solo", as Bob Arum would lead you to believe, and no, there are absolutely no negotiations taking place at this time. As it's always been in the past, Bob Arum knows exactly what he needs to do in order to make this fight a reality and sending Koncz with some investors to Mayweather, something that I even I can do, is not the way to "heat up" negotiations. Sure, it's a good way to make Manny Pacquiao think that he's trying to make the fight, but the reality is he's not. This is simply another way to make Pacquiao, the media, and the fans happy before he breaks their hearts and gives them another fight that we don't need to see.
IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IT, BE SURE TO CHECK BACK SOON FOR OUR EXCLUSIVE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH FLOYD MAYWEATHER STATING, "MAY 5TH, LET'S MAKE THE FIGHT! I'M HERE, I'M WAITING!"
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