adminFLOYD Mayweather Jnr and Manny Pacquiao could finally meet next year in boxing’s biggest-ever fight.
Top Rank chief Bob Arum, who promotes the Filipino superstar, insisted there is genuine will on his part to make the long-awaited clash happen should Pacquiao overcome the relentless Brandon Rios in Macau this weekend.
Conservative estimates value the fight at a staggering $300 million.
But a failure on the part of both camps to get round the negotiating table, following back-and-forth mudslinging, has led to a standoff which has prevented boxing’s premier match-up from being made.
But Arum has now revealed that it is a fight he is determined to make happen and is prepared to sit down with Mayweather’s team to put it together.
“On our side the answer is yes the fight can be made in 2014, we’re very open to it,” he said. “There are ways it can get done, they have to dumb down the rhetoric, we are prepared to dumb down the rhetoric and get it done.
“There is no real impediment to having that fight happen whether it will or not depends completely on the Mayweather side. I can see it happening but I can’t predict that it will happen because it takes two to tango.”
One potential stumbling block to the bout being made is the US TV issue, with Top Rank fighters appearing on HBO and Mayweather, who signed a multi-million pound six-fight deal last year, fighting on Showtime.
Arum, though, believes the blueprint on how to overcome the issue has been laid out from previous superfights.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach says the boxer will use Sunday’s fight against Rios to punish members of his opponent’s camp who mocked Roach’s speech, which is affected by Parkinson’s disease.
The fallout from Wednesday’s row between Roach and the Rios camp continued yesterday, with Roach saying Pacquiao had watched the video of the heated incident in which Roach was kicked and his speech mocked.-Sportsmail.
Online Reporter