The news of Floyd Mayweather calling out Manny Pacquiao sent shockwaves throughout the boxing community, sparking a ton of reaction from fans and media alike. The emails have not stopped pouring in with questions about his recent FightHype interview, Manny Pacquiao's response, whether or not Pacquiao will fight on May 5, and much more. Although I don't have all the answers, I do have an opinion, so check out what I had to say to inquiring minds who want to know.
Hey Ben, I've been following your articles about this ongoing saga and I have to admit, I'm a bit confused on Pacquiao's latest comments. If I remember correctly, when Bob Arum was talking to investors, I seem to remember you writing a story that said Pacquiao was expecting a deal to get done with Mayweather for a fight on May 5th. Did I misread that or did Pacquiao suddenly change his stance? Let me know your thoughts and keep putting the truth out there. Thanks. - Dan Peterson
BT: Dan, your memory serves you correctly. Just last month, when Bob Arum was supposedly entertaining offers from all of those investors, Pacquiao said he was under the impression that a fight with Mayweather was 80 to 90 percent certain to take place on May 5, at least that's what he told a group of journalists, one being Joaquin Henson of The Philippine Star, during a dinner at the Harbour View Restaurant, Luneta, on Monday, December 7, 2011. As Henson recalled, "He even checked the 2012 calendar on his phone to confirm if May 5 the Cinco de Mayo holiday in Mexico fell on a Saturday. The date conveniently is on a Saturday so it will be shown live in Manila on Sunday morning. The fight will likely be staged in Las Vegas."
Now, if you ask me, it seems like back in December, Pacquiao had absolutely no problems with fighting on May 5. Since then, however, both his promoter and his adviser have insisted, for one reason or another, that the fight must take place in late May. Does Pacquiao agree with them? It's hard to say, but I can only assume that he does because he's never verbally said that he'll fight on May 5 and the only other time he's approached the topic of a date is when he allegedly endorsed a test message that his adviser sent saying, "Be your own boss Floyd and fight at the end of May, for the economic reason of earning the extra income from the bigger stadium... the earliest this can be constructed is the end of May." Apparently, there was a separate text message sent from Pacquiao "confirming" that he'll fight at the end of May. Again, since reports of that text message first surfaced last Wednesday, I have not heard the words "May 5" come out of Pacquiao's mouth, so I really can't confirm or deny if he has agreed, however, I can confirm that his promoter and his adviser have not. Why the sudden change of heart from Pacquiao, when it seemed last month that he was okay with the date? I have no idea. I can only assume that his promoter and his adviser, for whatever reason, have convinced him that he shouldn't fight on that date.
Hey Ben, Huge fan of your work man! I think your writing on the negotations between Mayweather and Pac is stellar. You keep it real, honest, and fresh! Did you see the latest from Pac? Of course, this doesn't mean anything since Arum seems to master the whole show. http://www.mp8.ph/news/official-statement-to-his-fans-i-will-fight-may-5th-3/13062 - Rolley Tuazon
BT: Thanks for the props, Rolley. Actually, I HAVE seen the "latest" from Pac thanks to his legions of fans who sent me the same link as some sort of "proof" that he has indeed agreed to the May 5 date. Unfortunately, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but contrary to their belief, he has NOT agreed to the May 5 date...at least not exactly. Although the words "Official Statement" appear in the title of the article, nowhere in Pacquiao's statements does he actually say that he agress to fight on May 5th. The truth of the matter is that those quotes in the "official statement" were simply taken from a press conference that both he and Bob Arum held prior to that article being written. In fact, here's a couple of links to stories talking about that exact same press conference:
- http://ringtv.craveonline.com/blog/171069-pacquiao-has-public-responses-to-mayweathers-twitter-attacks
- http://www.skynews.com.au/sport/article.aspx?id=706743&vId
"To all of my fans...Mayweather just needs to agree to and accept a 50 percent split, and if he does, then the fight will go through. He's the one who needs to agree"..."He's the one who has to say yes. The reason is because he talks to a lot of people. He has a lot of representatives. If he takes the fight, he can make $50-to-60 million. That's how much he can make"..."I want to fight him. This is the fight the world wants. Mayweather wants a guaranteed purse, so what he has to do is get a promoter who can give him the guarantee"..."I don't have problems getting a guarantee because I have a promoter who will give me my guaranteed purse. If he gets a guarantee, then we are going to share the revenue on a 50-50 basis."
The difference between those articles and the "official statement" on his website, however, is that you don't see the comments from Bob Arum, who was also in attendance at the press conference, making it crystal clear that the fight would have to take place in LATE MAY. Furthermore, on the exact same day, Pacquiao's adviser Michael Koncz absolutely dismissed the notion of fighting on May 5, telling the Associated Press, "Why would I tell Manny to fight on the 5th and throw away a percentage of 30 million? That's crazy." To make matters even worse for those that still subscribe to the philosophy that he has agreed, prior to today, the first sentence in the "official statement" initially read: "Manny Pacquiao agrees to fight May 5th". In fact, if you notice in the link you sent me, part of the url reads "official-statement-to-his-fans-i-will-fight-may-5th". If you visit that link now, however, you'll notice that the first sentence that I mentioned has been removed. It looks like whoever put that article together misinterpreted Pacquiao's statements, and has sense made a change to it in order to avoid any further confusion. So just to clarify for anyone who may still be confused, Manny Pacquiao has NOT verbally agreed to fight on May 5.
Hi. First off great interview with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and I am a boxing fan wishing to see these two fight! All the news outlets seem to be reporting that Manny Pacquiao's camp has declined the May 5th date but if you go on his official site, he put up an official statement yesterday stating that he is accepting the May 5th date on some terms. http://www.mp8.ph/news/official-statement-to-his-fans-i-will-fight-may-5th-3/13062 There was no comments section in the interview so I was hoping maybe you could report this or relay this message to Floyd somehow to get something started for the megafight! Thank you.
BT: See above regarding the link you sent me. :-) The powers that be know what they need to do to get the fight done. Just days after Pacquiao's narrow victory over Marquez, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer, on the instruction of Floyd Mayweather, reached out to Bob Arum through retired Federal Judge Daniel Weinstein in hopes of beginning negotiations. Arum, however, informed Judge Weinstein that he was not interested in negotiating a fight with Mayweather because they were pursuing a fourth fight with Marquez instead. This is fact and on record, as both Schaefer and Leonard Ellerbe have told several media outlets that they'd be more than happy to provide the correspondence that Judge Weinstein had with them regarding the matter. Since then, Arum has not made the effort to contact Judge Weinstein, Al Haymon, or Richard Schaefer in order to get the ball rolling. Instead, he's opted to "negotiate" through the media, something that he's said time and time again that he would not do. I really don't understand why this is difficult for people to see. Team Mayweather has tried to reach out to negotiate. Arum, however, refused and has not made any efforts to move forward since then.
Is the reason for a may 5th date simply becuz of the amount of money made when floyd fought de la hoya on this date. And The records broken for most ppv buys.? Regardless, its a mexican holiday. So why is floyd insisting in this date ? He is not a mexican! Neither is pac man.. Shouldnt they fight on a phillipino holiday or black holiday? Im just curious.. I guess nexicans have the biggest most tuned in buys.. We do like to party.. And its not a party w out a fight.. Thats for sure. But if floyd is going to insist on this date.. Maybe he should give back to the latin community in particular.. Just saying.. - Daniel Perez
BT: Daniel, I don't really have any statistics to support what I'm about to say, but in my opinion, I think the Mexican community has always been one of the biggest supporters of the sport of boxing. Obviously, promoters like Bob Arum, who have access to statistical data, would know better than me, but given the fact that, to this day, the most financially successful pay-per-view bout in the history of the sport took place on Cinco de Mayo, I don't think it's a reach to think that they might be trying to duplicate that kind of success by fighting on that same day. That being said, a big fight is a big fight, so I don't think the date really matters. After all, Mike Tyson fought Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield in June and was able to rake in nearly 2 million buys in both of those fights. Then again, that's Mike Tyson we're talking about. LOL. Nevertheless, as far as Mayweather is concerned, his May 5 date was already locked in well before he received his 90-day sentence. He's unable to move the date due to the fact that the judge granted him a postponement of his surrender date when his lawyer argued, "The fight business is a fluid, ever-changing industry as opponents move on, as blocks for cable view, like on the various weekends, are committed long months ahead of time, so this isn't 'move it to the next weekend' or something." Given that fact, I really don't think they're in a position to disrespect the judge by simply moving a fight date with the snap of a finger. That would not be a good look at all. Besides, Arum's reasons for wanting to move the fight seem pretty weak in my opinion. Manny himself seems to think his cut is okay and fans don't care about "maximizing profits", so what's the hold up?
hey ben, Dan Rafael is reporting that Arum is willing to make the fight but that Manny is asking for too big a guarantee (something like 50 million), while Arum wants to guarantee 30. Do you have any updates on whats going on in the Pac side? Do you know if the camps have bothered to get in contact yet? Thanks for the great interview earlier today! - Andrew
BT: I have no idea what Manny is asking for, but I'm quite sure he's asking for more money than Arum wants to pay him. There's a big difference between a "verbal" guarantee and an actual purse amount that's written on a bout contract. If Pacquiao does fight Mayweather, Arum won't be able to get away with writing numbers as low as $6.5 million on a Nevada State Athletic Commission bout contract, like he's done in previous bouts despite the fact that he "verbally guranteed" Pacquiao upwards of $20-$25 million. When Mayweather says he's guranteed $25 million, that's exactly what's written on his bout contracts. In other words, he gets what he's supposed to get. Pacquiao on the other hand, I'm not so sure. In my opinion, it seems like Arum is able to get away with certain things, when he's controlling the entire promotion himself, that he wouldn't be able to get away with in a co-promotion. Long story short, yeah, Pacquiao's asking for a ton, but honestly, the amount he's asking for is probably what he should be getting. If he did get that amount, however, Arum would be left getting a fraction of that...hence the reason why I believe this fight hasn't been made. As for contact, like I said, Team Mayweather already reached out and were basically told, "Thanks, but no thanks." I really don't see why they should continue to contact someone who already told them they weren't interested. If Arum wants to make the fight, he knows who he needs to contact: Judge Weinstein, Richard Schaefer, or Al Haymon...the same people he was dealing with back in 2009 the one time they actually did make an effort to make the fight.
Hello Mr. Ben Thompson, that latest interview you had with Floyd Joy Mayweather today was the best interview I've read on your site with the champ since the video collages, it's great you are his biggest and most honest platform to tell his side of the story, they need to get this info to the AP and Credit your site of course but it just amazes me how most Boxing fans don't see what's going on over at Top Rank Arum needs his choke hold on the Boxing business removed somehow, its crazy! How can Arum as a business man not make this fight with money as one of the issues, wouldn't Manny make more on this fight, even without the extra outdoor seats, at the MGM than fighting anyone else, I know I know when he loses that's his last biggest payday smh. But just wanted to shoot a brief appreciation to you guys over at FightHype hopefully we'll get this fight and sit back and enjoy Much Peace Brother.
BT: Thanks for the props. The key question you asked was, "Wouldn't Manny make more on this fight?" Absolutely! Manny would make more in this one fight than he's probably made in his last four fights put together. In fact, he'd probably make even more than Bob Arum himself stands to make. Therein lies the problem. The fact that Bob Arum himself probably makes more money by having Manny fight everyone else but Mayweather is likely the reason why he won't make the fight. Truth be told, from a business standpoint, at least for his company, he's actually doing the right thing by not making the fight. That being said, you can't really knock the hustle, but personally, I'd rather be told the truth than to be lied to about it. If you're not going to make the fight because you have other fights that you want to make, hey, no problem; do your thing. Just quit making fans think that you're actually trying to make it when you're really not. Just my two cents on the subject.
[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]