By Ronnie Nathanielsz
ALTHOUGH he has said time and again that he is not convinced Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants to fight eight-division world champion and Fighter of th Decade Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino icon’s longtime adviser Michael Koncz is still working with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum to try and get the fight done.
Koncz told BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard/Viva Sports that negotiations are still going on.
And in the wake of reports that some of Pacquiao’s people were trying to make the fight happen on their own and sidelining Arum, Koncz shot down that idea, knowing that Pacquiao has a contract with Arum and he must be in the loop.
With an estimated $200 million on the table, the talks are centered at present on a reasonable split and although Pacquiao had agreed to take a smaller share of the purse, the word is Mayweather wants $160 million while giving the Filipino $40 million. This was the same amount Mayweather offered Manny a couple of years ago during a telephone conversation coursed through Koncz, but which Pacquiao rejected.
Koncz earlier suggested that Mayweather’s calling out Pacquiao for a May fight was a mere propaganda ploy, since he was losing out in the verbal exchanges, but that until he sees Mayweather’s signature on a contract, he wouldn’t believe that the showdown which the world has wanted for the past four years, would happen.
Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, meantime, said that a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight was “still on top of my list” of the fights he wanted to see happen in 2015.
He pointed out that if HBO and Showtime could get together to telecast his title showdown with Mike Tyson, they should be able to work it out to do the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight.
“Stop this madness and make it happen,” Lewis said.
