Arum open to Mayweather-Pacquiao fight

Top Rank President Bob Arum said earlier this week that he was open to making a super fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquaio. Arum, who many blame for the fight not happening to begin with, said that he was willing to discuss the fight depending on how Pacquiao does against Brandon Rios on November 23rd in Macau. If Pacquiao were to win the fight Arum said that he wouldn't mind making a Mayweather-Pacquaio fight next year.

"This biggest problem is the networks. HBO and Showtime." Arum stated. Floyd Mayweather is contracted to Showtime for four more fights while Manny Pacquiao is contracted to HBO. However that could be resolved as Arum pointed out that both networks worked together to make Lewis-Tyson over ten years ago. Mike Tyson was with Showtime and Lennox Lewis was with HBO. The continuous efforts to make Mayweather-Pacquiao over the last three years was what caused the fallout between Golden Boy and Top Rank to begin with. Some blamed Arum, some blamed Pacquaio, and some blamed Mayweather for the fight not happening.

"There is no reason why it can't happen." Arum stated.

While there would be tons of details to work out, along with tons of problems to get by, the fact that Arum is open to discussing the fight is a huge start. Over the last two years Arum has been shut down to even the thought of Mayweather vs Pacquiao. Not saying that this is going to seal the deal for the fight but Mayweather finds himself in a tough situation as far as finding an opponent to make him some extra money other than the guaranteed money he gets from Showtime. Mayweather receives a guaranteed amount of money from Showtime for each fight and he gets extra money for the PPV buys. He made a 32 million base salary for fighting Guerrero but because the PPV buys weren't great there were no reports of him making any extra money from that. However when he faced Canelo it was reported that his base salary of 41 million was more than doubled because it sold more than 2 million PPV buys. Mayweather is expected to make around 90 million for the Canelo fight.

Mayweather's team and Showtime may want to think about making this fight happen as it would likely break the record that Mayweather vs De La Hoya set over six years ago. If it were to break over 2.5 million PPV buys then Mayweather would likely walk away with over 100 million dollars for a fight against Pacquiao. Whether the fight actually happens depends on alot of things, first and foremost Pacquiao beating Rios on November 23rd. Should that happen, then the next big step can begin to unfold. A Mayweather vs Pacquiao fight is still a mega-fight despite it being three years to late. The real question is one that everyone has wondered right from the very start, does Mayweather really want the fight? We may get another chance to find out after November.