"The question is whether Mayweather is willing to go into the ring this year. It's up to him. His people would love him to do it. He may not want to do it. If Mayweather wants to fight in November, I believe the fight will be made. To me it seems it seems, and I say that, because I'm not Mayweather that the only issue is whether he wants to fight in November," stated promoter Bob Arum as he revealed that both sides have agreed to all terms regarding a megafight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. "That's all been resolved," he would tell Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports when asked about the issue of random blood testing, the very same obstacle which prevented the fight from happening in the first place. In fact, according to Arum, the only thing standing in the way of the highly-anticipated bout is Floyd Mayweather's approval. Of course, there's still the small matter of Pacquiao's defamation lawsuit against Mayweather.
Negotiations for the highly-anticipated bout first began back in November of 2009. Everything appeared to be moving smoothly, with both parties initially agreeing to matters such as weight, glove size and purse split. Talks quickly broke down, however, when Mayweather, fueld by his father's suspicion that Pacquiao may be using performance-enhancing drugs, requested Olympic-style random drug testing. Insulted by the accusations, and a number of comments made to the media, Pacquiao filed a defamation lawsuit against Floyd Mayweather, Roger Mayweather, Floyd Mayweather Sr., Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya. Thus far, that lawsuit is still ongoing, with certain individuals having already been deposed and both sides requesting the court to hold oral arguments in August.
"How's he talking about fighting when the lawsuit's still out there," commented one source close to the Mayweather camp, who believes that, more than anything, Pacquiao's defamation lawsuit is what's really standing in the way of this fight taking place. Although Arum made it a point to state that he didn't see any real issues standing in the way, he failed to mention whether or not the matter of the lawsuit was addressed. "I am not going to talk about the specifics of the negotiations. You have my statement that there are no real issues that I can see, except whether he wants to fight now or later or not at all," he reiterated.
Perhaps I'm just being pessimistic, but something tells me that Floyd Mayweather won't be too quick to agree to any terms so long as that lawsuit still exists.
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