By Elisinio Castillo, notifight.com
Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum is not placing a deadline on the serious discussions to make a May pay-per-view fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. The terms are being worked out by Arum, HBO CEO Richard Plepler and CBS CEO Less Moonves.
Arum is getting concerned with the way the negotiations are dragging on and wants to complete the negotiations sooner than later. Mayweather's first fight with Marcos Maidana was not announced until the end of February, so this is not unusual for the pound-for-pound king as it relates to waiting until the end of the month to finalize an opponent.
"We’re just trying to complete the paperwork. Floyd has dug in to fighting on May 2 and every day it takes to finalize the fight it takes away from the promotion of it. Now there’s no hard and fast deadline. Not one of the remaining points are too big to overcome,” Arum said.
Arum did not discuss the outstanding issues between the two fighters. They have agreed on the drug testing with Mayweather's choice of USADA, using the MGM Grand as the venue, a 60-40 split in favor of Mayweather, the brand of gloves has been agreed upon, promotional details connected with the tour is not in dispute either.
One of the concerning points between the networks is known, with both battling over the terms for the delayed broadcast of the joint pay-per-view. When HBO and [CBS-owned] Showtime united for the Mike Tyson-Lennox Lewis pay-per-view in 2002, the winner of the match earned the delay for his contract network. This time HBO wants both networks to have the delay.
Mayweather, Pacquaio and the Filipino's adviser Michael Koncz held a meeting last Tuesday in a Miami hotel room and there was progress made. Koncz and Pacquiao walked away from that meeting with a positive outlook on the fight actually happening.