Pacquiao, Floyd fight a done deal?

By NICK GIONGCO


Negotiations for the mouth-watering March 13, 2010 fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. took a giant step towards completion Friday after promoter Bob Arum emerged smiling after meeting with the Filipino star.

“I met with Manny this morning and my next step is to go back to the US to meet with the Mayweather people to finalize the arrangements. That’s as far as I want to go and we have an understanding with the Mayweather people until we finalize everything,” Arum said during a press conference that also formally announced a TV partnership between ABS-CBN and Top Rank.

Arum politely declined to go further but the tone of his voice suggested that Pacquiao and Mayweather are on the same page.

“You can interpret it the way you like it but you can see a smile on my face that means I am not disappointed,” said Arum, who had initially met with Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) CEO Richard Schaefer before coming to the country.

Schaefer is being allowed by Mayweather to represent him in negotiations with Arum even though he is not under the GBP banner. Mayweather, however, has dealt a couple of times with the Oscar De La Hoya-owned GBP.

“This is going to be one of the biggest fights financially,” stressed Arum, who aims to finalize the deal with Mayweather’s camp in the next two weeks.

If everything falls into place, Arum said a major press conference will be held sometime in January and because of time constraints, there would be no more multi-city promotional tours.

On another note, Arum said that Roy Chiongbian, who will be contesting the lone congress seat of Sarangani in next year’s polls, should make a sacrifice.

“I just hope that Manny would be focused and I think his opponent would do everybody a service to the great country of the Philippines by withdrawing from the race so it could take Manny’s mind off politics but that’s just my opinion. I am not a Filipino and I can’t tell everyone what to do but this guy Manny is running against should do everybody a favor.”

Meanwhile, Arum’s deal with ABS-CBN would allow the giant network to broadcast major Top Ranks cards mainly from the US and Mexico, some of which will feature Filipino fighters.

But Pacquiao fights remain in GMA-7 and Solar Sports’ domain.

The two television outfits and Pacquiao signed a new contract which gives GMA-7 and Solar the rights to broadcast his fights until 2013.

Solar Entertainment President Wilson Tieng confirmed Pacquiao’s signing of a renewal contract with their company in an interview yesterday.

“A few months ago, (Manny) renewed his contract. So, Solar's contract with Pacquiao is up to 2013. Hindi lang ito na-publicize,” Tieng said.

Should the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, which experts have been calling the "Fight of the Century," push through, viewers will be able to watch it for free on GMA Network and Solar Sports.

“We are tied up with Manny until 2013. Whether against Mayweather or whoever else, Solar will still have the airing rights for the Philippines. With our partnership, we’ll still air the fights on GMA and Solar TV,” said Solar COO Peter Chanliong.

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