by Ronnie Nathanielsz
AMDST the confusion and conflicting reports on a possible Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight, the one constant is that the phone lines are open between the American boxer and the Filipino ring icon’s adviser Michael Koncz.
Koncz, who arrived in Los Angeles yesterday, spoke to BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard, but flatly refused to give any additional details. He claimed that he wants to keep his side of a commitment to Mayweather not to talk to the media about their conversations, following their initial one-on-one meeting at the Mayweather gym last month.
“This is very delicate and very sensitive,” said Kocz, although Mayweather and Pacquiao, to a much lesser extent, reveal some details about their phone conversations from time to time.
The Pacquiao adviser admitted he has a series of meetings scheduled in Las Vegas on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, but again declined to disclose, who he is meeting with.
Mayweather is reported to have clarified in an email to ESPN, that while Pacquiao had mentioned a 50-50 split during a brief talk with him last Wednesday, he would not agree to a 50-50 split.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum reacted by maintaining his position that two things has to happen before a fight can be made.
First, is that Mayweather has to agree to either a May 26 or a June 9 date, or better still, sometime in November. And second, the fight has to be a 50-50 split, otherwise it can’t happen despite the fact that Pacquiao had publicly announced he was willing to take a cut just to ensure the fight takes place. Last week, however, when he spoke to Mayweather, he had an apparent change of mind and mentioned a 50-50 sharing.
Arum has insisted many times in the recent past that Pacquiao packs the MGM Grand Garden Arena, while Mayweather doesn’t, as evidenced in his fights against Juan Manuel Marquez and Victor Ortiz.
He also pointed to Pacquiao-Marquez III, which drew some 1.4 million pay per view fans, while the Mayweather-Ortiz drew much less.
ESPN.com quoted the Mayweather email, which stated: “I called him (Pacquiao) and asked him about us fighting May 5 and giving the world what they want to see. I also let him know we both can make a lot of money. He asked about a 50/50 split and I told him, no that can’t happen, but what can happen is you can make more money fighting me than you have made in your career. I also let him know I’m in control on my side, but he needs to get on the same page with his promoter so we can make this fight happen.”
He mentioned the Koncz visit to his gym, during which Mayweather said they “spoke about getting the defamation of character lawsuit dropped against me and about both fighters taking the random blood and urine test. I spoke to Koncz again last night about the same thing. The call last night lasted 15 or 20 minutes. I mainly spoke to his manager, he (Pacquiao) got on and off the phone real quick.”
