By Yuri Tarantin
Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, who works very closely with WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, says the cable networks must come together to push the issue with a deal being reached for a mega-fight unification between Pacquiao and WBC/WBA champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Pacquiao has an exclusive deal with HBO, and Mayweather is under contract with Showtime. In 2002, the two networks came together to stage a very anticipated heavyweight pay-per-view fight between Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis.
On Wednesday, the World Boxing Council (WBC) went public and expressed their full support, making a plea for both sides to come together to make deal. Pacquiao defense his title on November 22nd against Chris Algieri.
"The WBC made the right step towards this fight," Roach said. "It would certainly be a great match. But now we need the networks, HBO and Showtime, to make an agreement with each other. The situation with the networks was the main reason things were difficult before [they began] negotiations for the fight with Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis, but then everyone agreed to achieve a common goal. So they should do the same thing again this time."
Yuri Tarantin covers boxing for Allboxing.ru.
