Geno McGahee of Ringside Report writes that Floyd Mayweather has threatened to pull out of the bout against Manny Pacquiao, tentatively scheduled for March 13th, because of differences in weight allowance.
According to a source very close to the situation, Floyd Mayweather, JR., has threatened to pull out of the March showdown with Manny Pacquiao over a weight issue. Apparently the weight of the meeting has been established, but the wiggle room that Floyd allegedly wants is being contested by Team Pacquiao. In his bout with Juan Manuel Marquez, Floyd came in heavy and paid for it financially, but others contend that Marquez paid for it in the ring, losing badly. Pacquiao does not want to face a fighter a division or so heavier than he is and has rightfully protested.
With the Manny Pacquiao bout in limbo, other options have been mentioned but these appear to be negotiation tactics. Reportedly, Mayweather’s camp has suggested that an in between bout would take place in March against a much lesser foe, perhaps a Yuri Foreman or Matthew Hatton and after that, should Pacquiao not accept the terms, a bout with the winner of the Shane Mosley – Andre Berto fight could be in the wings.
Although other options have been mentioned, expect this fight to stay on course and occur. There is far too much money involved and they have agreed on the most important specifics…the cash divide. Now we are in the bickering stage of the negotiations and expect more and more little things blown out of proportion and turned into big deals.
Payout Perspective:
The last thing that boxing needs right now is its next, and possibly last, mega fight to be scrapped due to promotional differences like a weight allowance. However, from an MMA/UFC perspective, the cancellation or postponement of this fight is definitely a good thing. Pacman-PBF is certain to consume an overwhelming amount of the media pie alloted to combat sports in late February and early March, but its cancellation or postponement would leave that media wide open for the UFC to help push its debut on Versus (March 21st) and UFC 111 (March 27th).
The way things are shaping up right now, February and March are looking to be critical months for the UFC as it looks to start 2010 strongly and salvage some of the PPV disappointment its dealt with down the stretch of 2009. The Versus show will be headlined by two young and exciting fighters in Vera and Jones, and the UFC is likely going to look to make an impression for its debut. Likewise, UFC 111 will be headlined by GSP vs. Hardy and possibly Mir vs. Carwin, and is shaping up to be one of the most stacked cards since UFC 100.
everyone was saying boxing was gonna be over when dela hoya fought mayweather 3 years ago. diddnt happen. boxings problem is there is just not enough guys who are extremly talented to watch.
mma guys are mostly made up of garbage amateur boxers, who have excelent ju-jitsu or wrestling skills.
no body wants to see two men rolling around on the ground hugging all night. thats why the crowd boo’s the whole fight.
mma/ufc audience wants to see stand up fights guys taking punches. basically bare knuckle boxing with no real stand up skill. at best what you are watching is a kickboxer, not a high level boxer the like of ali or leonard.
heres an example Mayeather=$2,500 taylored suit. Lesnar= $35 jogging suit from walmart. point made…
“The last thing that boxing needs right now is its next, and possibly last, mega fight…”
No disrespect to you, but just stop it with that crap. You can go back in 3-5 year increments and read one of you johnny-come-lately combative sport writer types talking about how THIS FIGHT just might be the last “mega” fight for boxing. In fact, you can go back decades and find this type of pablum.
It just gets old.
Well if boxing is so possed to be the best fighters in the world hahaha ur wrong there’s more to fight then just punching and danceing around there’s no boxer that’s a champion that can beat a champion in ufc the same with the ufc champs in boxing but but a boxer in the streets with a mma fighter well the boxer will get smashed watch the youtube video mma vs boxing joe rogan made ur guys boxer comentator look stupid
“The last thing that boxing needs right now is its next, and possibly last, mega fight…”
Very ignorant comment. The kind of thing people who dont watch boxing have been saying about boxing for years.
Don Frye vs A boxer? LOL. Don Frye was drunk and 10 years past c level in MMA. Is that your claim to fame for boxers? LOL
I can run off a laundry list of boxers who went to K1 thinking it would be more like boxing because they were to scared to do MMA. They all got killed. Botha, Mercer, smaller boxers in K1 max. Japanese top 10 boxers, etc all got killed. Art Jimmerson and Milton Bowen ditto.
Also Ree-tard
Brock isnt the highest paid at 500K. How about educating yourself on the subject before making an ass of yourself. Chuck, Randy, Brock and many others have made more than 1 million per fight.
As yourself how many boxers after 100 years of history are making 1 million per fight right now? Not very damn many. Just because there are 4-5 guys who can get 10 million pay days dont mean shit. They are the only boxers who get shit. MMa is set up so the money is spread out to pay other fighters on the card and build a future for the sport. Go look at the undercard of boxing PPVs or cards on HBO. Those 3rd fights from the main event guys are lucky to get $2k. 8th fight guys on UFn can walk away with 20K not to mention bonus’.
Arlovski, Sylvia, and Silva want to box because they have no fan base to deserve big pay days in MMA. Anderson is the worst draw to headline a UFC. Sylvia is the most disliked fighter in MMA.
Joe Calzaghe
“I think boxing is a dying sport. Globally — in America for instance — you’ve got UFC, which has taken a lot off boxing, business-wise,” Calzaghe said, referring to the mixed martial arts Ultimate Fighting Championship.
“There is too much politics in boxing, too many belts and too many champions, which dilutes real champions like myself,” he said. “There are four world champions in each division and it’s bad because there are no stars any more. It’s a big problem.”
So apparently its not just people who dont watch boxing. LMAO
Also MMA/UFC is more than 13 years old. Royce Gracie in the first UFC’s sold hundreds of thousands of PPVs. So say MMA is a white sport and boxing is not shows your ignorance. Boxing is a “old white” guy sport. Technically every sport is a white guy sport because White’s makes up 70% of the population and blacks like 14%. If you think blacks are the majority consumor of anything your are a dumbass. That includes who buys hip hop music and 20 inch rims.
I’d just like to encourage everyone to keep their posts clean. I’d really hate to remove comments because they were a.) PoORly…<< wriTTen or b.) discriminatory. Regarding the mega fight issue: I'm not sure that it's ignorant or crap. The numbers support the position that the popularity of boxing is declining in terms of median PPV interest, median fighter interest, and general media coverage. What's wrong with stating that the last thing boxing needs is for this fight to fall through, or that it could be the last big fight? This fight is very important for the sport, because it could be the catalyst to re-energizing a casual fan base that has largely moved on to other forms of entertainment. It could start a chain of events that creates enough momentum to drive and sustain new interest in the sport - interest that, at this point or the forseeable future, no two other fighters could possibly hope to generate.
I like how boxing fans come into this article, in particular and try to smack-talk MMA. Hi, your mega-fight might be canceled over something so lame as a weight cut dispute.
So glad the UFC has control over the fighters so such shenanigans aren’t allowed. Boxing is a joke with all the politics, always has been.
To all the comments above: there’s really no dispute between boxing & mma. Boxing popularity, based on timing. UFC,or mma, based on the action it provides the fans.
Oviously, non of u posting comments are fighters. Boxers or MMA are fighters..and have a great deal of respect for one another.
Boxing is and alway’s be the sweet science of fighting. There are many good fighters in boxing. It isn’t fare to compare a mma fighter & and a boxer.boxers r skilled stand-up fighters, with great agility, hand skill, weight distribution,(created punching power) and good ring techs.
MMA, are great skilled in movement technique with the ability to have great hand and leg mobility.
To say who better is absurd! ..ofcourse a boxer better standing up! ..n we all know a mma fighter is better on the ground. I believe the best pound for pound fighters in the world are MMA (but not at the moment)
also, I believe, in the next few years.. mma fighters, will have learned the sweet science. Meaning a mma fighter, will be able to compete at the highest level of boxing.
Unfortunately, we wont see any of this quality competition …until, mma start training with real professional boxing trainers, Roache’s, Mayweather’s etc . then we need to see more boxers make the transition to mma, that are willing to learn mma) the type of boxer tht im talking about is your 10 round fighter. unfortunately, We will never see a top-ten boxer in mma ..reason, because its about economics, UFC, the only organization that can afford it ,but wont.
A top ten boxer (fighter, )will earn $100-00 -$1million and over with the opportunity to advance to a championship bout n be paid to fight (signing bonus) traininging expenses figures, and a ppv percentage usually 20% n up promoters usually never earn more)then boxers for per championships fights.
For example: the PAC-MAN earned $26million for his last fight. Cotta, earned 12million. ..(excluding signing bonus, training expenses,) The PAC-MAN & Mayweather will receive a $25million signing bonus each. and will split a potential ppv gate of $70-80million. So, enough said! nor high-ranked boxer, nor anyone of of us will even consider fighting in mma or for the most prolific mma organization in the world(UFC)
Lesnar, earned $400k ..while Frank Mir, earned $250k .. and these are are heavy weights Although they do get sponsorship earnings. Still, its no comparison.
I must say, a boxer will only be successful in mma, only, if he willing to learn prevention take -down , alittle grappling, etc. he’ll need to learn enough to just survive a couple years until he’s comfortable on the ground.
A mma, fighter will need to learn how to box from a legitiment world-class boxing trainers.
No fighter better then the other..they just need to combined the fight. Only then! ..will we see the best fighters in the world.
Af ew fighters close to pnd for pnd prominence: Rashad Evans, SGP, RAMPAGE..coinincidence they all have world class boxing trainers.
I post on here as much as most anyone, as I’m sure Kelsey can confirm. You can’t pigeonhole me as a fan of any one particular sport, to the exclusion of any other.
“Hi, your mega-fight might be canceled over something so lame as a weight cut dispute.”
Even though it’s not MY megafight, I can safely predict that this is little more than a ploy of some sort.
“It could start a chain of events that creates enough momentum to drive and sustain new interest in the sport – interest that, at this point or the forseeable future, no two other fighters could possibly hope to generate.”
Fully agree.
“What’s wrong with stating ………. that it could be the last big fight?”
Because that’s inaccurate and, well, crap!
i read good points from different parties.but why erase comments that favor the boxing side? oh well hope theres a website that can give all the details between the 2 sports…im not from the u.s. but worldwide mma is still way far from boxing…Boxing is in the Olympics..example in germany…Dana keeps on saying they did well.true 12,000 fans showed up..but the wladimir klitckco fight had 60,000 in live gate attendance…5 x bigger…but Dana would say boxing is dead….and im thinkin based on what? also this article said that it would be the last big event? based on what? dont you think there would be a rematch? dont you think there would be a trilogy? dont you think a heavyweight like david haye who can ko anybody and an exciting fighter…who can talk like Ali wont make it BIg?the writer included boxing in this website…and put a negative remark on it….
I erased a few on the MMA side, too. Believe me.
It’s not about boxing vs. MMA. This piece was never about boxing vs. MMA.
Rather, this piece was about how something in the boxing world — a product that could be viewed as a competitor, a substitute, or a complement to MMA — may affect MMA business.