Floyd Mayweather Jr. is aching to prove that he is not ducking Manny Pacquiao as he insisted that he is not the reason why their super fight is still hanging in the balance at this point.
Mayweather, who challenged Pacquiao to a showdown on Cinco de Mayo weekend, posted a photo of his reported meeting with the Filipino boxing icon in a hotel in Miami last week.
In the photo posted on Shots, Mayweather reiterated that he is very willing to make the fight against Pacquiao happen in May, which was the reason why he decided to set up a meeting with his rival.
"I set up this meeting with Manny Pacquiao to get this fight done but they will continue to tell the public it's us and that's not true," Mayweather wrote, referring to reports that they are holding the fight up.
Pacquiao, the reigning World Boxing Organization welterweight champion, has reportedly agreed to a 60-40 share on fight purse and will submit himself to random drug testing. Sources also said that Pacquiao's camp agreed to stage the fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 2.
However, one of the biggest hurdles is left unresolved - the network rivalry between HBO and Showtime. Mayweather has an exclusive deal with Showtime, while Pacquiao is under contract with HBO.
Top Rank Promotions CEO Bob Arum said that there were four issues surrounding the fight, but two were already resolved. Arum declined to give specifics about the unresolved issues, but an unidentified network official told Los Angeles Times that HBO and Showtime are still discussing several terms.
"We're down to them and haven't resolved them in the last week," the network official was quoted as saying. "Discussions continue and each of those issues is important. There are still some fundamental points remaining."
The LA Times also revealed that the two giant networks are discussing a sharing of talent for the fight. Sources said James Brown of CBS will be the fight host, Jim Lampley of HBO will be the play-by-play broadcaster and Al Bernstein of Showtime will serve as lead analyst. Max Kellerman of HBO and Jim Gray of Showtime will make fighter interviews.
Last month, Pacquiao and Arum said that they will wait for Mayweather to decide until the end of January, but the famed promoter told BoxingScene on Wednesday that they will not set a hard and quick deadline for the negotiation because they are very eager to make the super fight happen in May.
