Will the highly-anticipated boxing match of the season happen next year? According to Manny Pacquaio's coach, it should be so, if Floyd Mayweather Jr. wouldn't want to ruin his legacy.
The Philippine Star quoted Freddie Roach in his interview wth HBO's "The Fight Game," who said that not only his prized fighter would be fighting off with Mayweather once, but it will happen three times. He said, "Doing a multi-fight contract, I thought that was the best idea in the world. I would love to see these guys fight more than once. If they split the first two, we could have a third. There could be a rubbermatch," the bespectacled cornerman said. We could have three big fights. It's been done before, it could be done again."
Supposedly sports match promotion company Top Rank is working behind the scenes with network Showtime to make the match happen. GMA Network said that a group from the United Arab Emirates has been very eager to make that match happen that they increased the initial offer from $110 million to $120 million to have it in Abu Dhabi. Principal investor Akbar Muhammad was quoted telling boxingscene.com that the offer was submitted to Mayweather Promotions.
"Mr. Mayweather has said he'll fight Pacquiao in the spring, so the only matter that needs to be resolved is the money. I defy any other offer to come anywhere close to what Mr. Mayweather and the ‘Money Team' will net by fighting in Abu Dhabi. It simply can't and won't be done. Such is the nature of today's international financial landscape. It's a brave new world, and sports is embracing it," he said.
The match has been plagued with a lot of hiccups, and aside from money, Mayweather's camp has been hesitate to seal the deal without Pacquiao's agreement to do random blood testing. Roach said that this is already a non-issue considering that the blood work requested ahead of the fight was shot down by Pacquaio's camp simply because of superstition.
He said, "When we lost that first fight together, Manny forgot to do his blood work before the fight. So he was forced by the commission to do it the day before he stepped in the ring with (Eric) Morales. In Manny's mind, he felt weakened before that fight and was convinced it was the reason why he lost. Mentally he thought it made him weak."
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