Bob Arum: ‘We’re Waiting To Hear From Floyd’

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum remains optimistic that the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will soon be settled. Arum said that they are only waiting on Mayweather to determine if the Pacquiao fight is a go or not.

“I’m very optimistic,” Arum told Steve Carp of Las Vegas Review Journal. “We’re waiting to hear from Floyd, but from everyone’s perspective, it needs to get resolved this week.”

Even though Pacquiao and Mayweather do not really need to work hard for promotion to make their fight a huge one, they still need to do some press tour to market the mega-buck fight. With less than three months before the proposed date of the fight, Arum feels the pressure and said that they need to start planning things. He added that there are a lot of things to be done.

Pacquiao has recently revealed that Mayweather called him but Pacquiao refused to elaborate on the details of the conversation. The eight-division Filipino world champion said that there is a great chance that the fight will take place. Pacquiao added that it is Mayweather who will make the announcement, should the fight take place.

The boxing world went mad when The Telegraph previously reported that the Filipino has already agreed to the superfight worth $250 million (AU$320 million). The report said that Mayweather will make the announcement at the National Basketball Association, or NBA, All-Star Game tip-off on Feb. 15 at Madison Square Garden. However, the report supposedly seemed premature much like when it was said that the undefeated American fighter will announce the fight during Super Bowl XLIX.

Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix also denied that a deal has been reached between both camps. In a tweet, Mannix said that two sources close to the negotiations said that Pacquiao and Mayweather are still trying to work out a number of issues.

Meanwhile, Showtime boss Stephen Espinoza further dampened the hopes of boxing fans about the fight. Espinoza hinted in a series of tweets that May 2 will have the biggest fight in the history of boxing, only if the negotiations work the way Mayweather and Showtime wish it would. He also made it clear that no deal has been signed yet.

It is not clear whether or not HBO and Showtime, which air Pacquiao and Mayweather’s fights, respectively, have reached a common middle ground. HBO has said that they are not an “impediment” in the heavily anticipated fight. The question still remains: will the boxing world see two of the world’s greatest welterweight champions trade punches on May 2?

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