Negotiations Heat Up For Mayweather/Pacquio
According to Kevin Iole at Yahoo! Sports, negotiations are moving swiftly to pit Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao in a dream bout for March of next year.
Others have stated that if March doesn’t work out, the fight could happen in September. The reason for the huge gap in time is because Pacquiao is scheduled to be running for Congress in the Philippines in May.
The three top venues to host the fight according to most are the MGM in Las Vegas, the new Texas Stadium, and the Superdome in Louisiana. To me, only Vegas truly makes sense because, well, it’s Vegas. They’ll be able to charge the most money for tickets, pack the house solid, and sell tickets for closed circuit venues. Also, Pacquiao’s fanbase has definitely shown that they’ll come to Vegas for a Pac-man fight weekend.
I think a possible problem with holding the fight in such large venues as the new Texas Stadium and the Superdome is that there might be an issue selling out the stadiums. I’m sure that the prices will be far less than in Vegas and if you actually want to attend the fight in person, you hope for the larger venues, but doing a show at such a huge venue could mean that it might not sell out and I think you want the no doubt about it boxing crowd of Las Vegas for the sure bet. I could be completely underestimating how far people will travel to see both Floyd or Manny, but I think it’s an easy win to hold this at the MGM.
You wouldn’t want to have to paper either of the big stadiums come the week of the fight and you also have an issue with possible acoustics. You want that crowd popping on all cylinders and heard completely on the PPV broadcast. You want to make sure it feels like one of the biggest sporting events of the year.
I know for sure that people are excited. I’ve had more than one person tell me that they’re ready to go wherever the fight is held, but I also heard from someone who thought it was too soon for Pacquiao to fight again. Mayweather fought in September and would have close to six months between fights while Pacquiao would only have four.
I think this actually helps Pacquiao. He’s at such an athletic peak right now that giving him extra months to go shoot movies, sing more karaoke than a man should have any right to sing, and just enjoy himself could be worse than just throwing him back in the gym and letting him hit that athletic peak again. Also, if it’s before his run for Congress, he can get the fight out of the way and worry about all of his political aspirations afterward.
Doing the fight in March also helps boxing. After Pacquiao dismantled Miguel Cotto, the public immediately asked for Mayweather/Pacquiao. And why not take advantage of this nice boxing run of the past few months? Give the fans what they want soon and you can possibly have both guys fight one more time before the year is out, giving boxing possibly two more big shows in 2010.
Of course, all of this is moot if negotiations fall through, which happens in big time prize fighting. I still can’t believe Mayweather agreed to terms with Bob Arum already.
Yeah, seen this this morning on fanhouse, supposedly Arum is on his way over to see Pacman right now. Im also a little suprised how quick Mayweather agreed to the terms!! Not like him at all….wonder if there going with the 50/50 split???
It has to be 50/50. But we’ll see soon if this thing gets done.
Quite frankly, I dont care who wins this fight so I will be rooting for either one when the fight happens. Do you know that the new Texas stadium holds 100,000 people, imagine the money they can make if they sell it out. Bob Arum must be licking his chops thinking of the money he can make. I feel that Floyd is sure he can beat Manny so he will agree to any deal available but wait till the fight starts and he see’s what he has gotten himself into, lol. I just hope both of them gets beat up then by then when Cotto gets one of his titles back in June when he fights in MSG as usual he will take on the winner to prove to the world he is the best. Oh did u tell Im a Cotto fan?, LOL.
Thanks alot Double GG, this is a great site, Im glad I found it.
Hey Lotsie,
I appreciate the kind words.
In order to fill that many fans, you’ll have to really water down the ticket prices, which is ok because you’ll still sell enough to make it worth it. But I don’t think they can sell the place out. I may be wrong but we’ll have to see.
If ever there has been a boxing match I want to see live if the fight gets made, this is the one. It will probably be too cost-prohibitive to go, but I’m still excited to hear we’re getting closer to it being a done deal.
I got one message from a friend who when found out the news said, “So, we going?”
GG