Pacquiao’s trainer: March 13 date ‘too fast a turnaround’
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The reported progress in negotiations to stage a super-fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao are tempered by the fact Pacquiao hasn’t yet reviewed contractual details that Mayweather has apparently initially OK’d, Pacquiao’s trainer told The Times today.
‘Of course,’ Freddie Roach said in a telephone conversation from Europe, ‘Manny believes he should get a 60-40 [purse] split too, because he did better in pay-per-view than Mayweather this year. Manny’s the bigger draw.’
The Times reported Tuesday night that a source familiar with the process who declined to be identified because he’s not authorized to speak about the negotiations said there are strong indications that Mayweather has agreed in principle to some contractual details. Yahoo! Sports and ESPN.com reported, respectively, earlier Tuesday that the fight is ‘is all but set,’ and that Mayweather had ‘agreed to terms for the welterweight title bout.’
Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum departed for the Philippines on Tuesday night for a previously scheduled trip to meet Pacquiao. Arum was not immediately available for comment today.
Roach said his agent, Nick Khan, told him ‘Arum had a [Mayweather] deal together’ when he left the U.S. ‘That’s all I know.’
Roach said he remains uncertain if the fight has to be fought March 13 because of Pacquiao’s planned run for a congressional seat in the Philippines in May. Arum and HBO, which will televise the bout, if it occurs, on pay-per-view, prefer a May 1 date.
Roach wants the later date too.
‘March 13 is too fast a turnaround,’ said Roach. ‘Manny has a broken [right] eardrum’ suffered in his Nov. 14 TKO victory over welterweight Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas. ‘I’d like to have more time. I hope the fight happens, yes, but I want us to be in the best possible shape.’
-- Lance Pugmire
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