By Edward Chaykovsky
Showtime Sports Executive VP Stephen Espinoza is not confident that a Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao super-fight will ever happen - unless Pacquiao breaks away from Top Rank and retains a new promoter.
Earlier this week, Mayweather took several social network swipes at the Filipino star.
In a recent interview, Mayweather said he would never fight Pacquiao as long as the eight division champion was promoted by Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum. In 2006, Mayweather had a nasty promotional split with Top Rank. Since that split, almost all of his fights have been co-promoted by Golden Boy Promotions.
“I know Floyd is not the issue. Floyd wants the fight. Floyd will fight Manny Pacquiao anywhere, any time. Unfortunately, there is a promotional conflict which is the issue. I’d like to say I’m optimistic but there is a lot of politics involved. A lot of history to resolve. Unfortunately, until Manny Pacquiao changes his promotional representation, I’m not optimistic that it can happen," Espinoza told The Telegraph.
Mayweather has a return date set for May 3 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Espinoza expects Mayweather to make a decision, regarding the opponent, in mid to late January. Both Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana are in the running.