Manny Pacquiao believes his long-awaited super fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. will finally happen on Cinco de Mayo weekend on May 2 in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao, who holds a 57-5-2 record with 38 knockouts, expressed confidence that they will hear more from Mayweather in the coming days. The Filipino boxing icon is very eager to face Mayweather because he wants to retire without any doubts about what could have been the result of the long-proposed showdown.
"I'm thinking that the fight will happen," Pacquiao told Ronnie Nathanielz of BoxingScene. "So hopefully, within one week, though, we can hear from them and fix the fight. I don't want that when I retire from boxing, there's a big question in the minds of the fans."
Pacquiao's statement came after Mayweather posted a video on Instagram, showing his personal meeting with Pacquiao in a hotel in Miami, where the reigning pound-for-pound king was talking about his willingness to make the fight happen.
"You know, I congratulate him on his career. He's had a wonderful career, and I've had a wonderful career. But before we leave this sport, of course, we have to make this fight happen," Mayweather said in the video.
The two camps have been going back-and-forth in the negotiation, but previous reports indicated that Pacquiao has already agreed to a 60-40 fight purse and that both of them will undergo random drug testing. The venue and fight were also set on May 2 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
But while Pacquiao sounded confident about the fight, Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya has other things in mind about the Cinco de Mayo weekend showdown.
De La Hoya believes that the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight will not happen on May 2. Why? Because he thinks Mayweather does not want to face Pacquiao, knowing that the former pound-for-pound king could hand him the first defeat of his career.
Mayweather, who defeated Argentine boxer Marcos Maidana twice last year, holds a perfect 47-0 record, but De La Hoya insisted that he will not be considered as the greatest of all time even if he retires with unbeaten if he will not face Pacquiao, who is considered as his biggest rival.
"Mayweather will not fight him, because he thinks that if leaves the sport undefeated he will be considered the best ever," De La Hoya told ESPN Deportes via BoxingScene. "But he won't be because people will respect you more when you face the toughest, the strongest, the most dangerous. It doesn't matter who, all of the biggest names lost."
