Hangad ni World Boxing Council (WBC) President Mauricio Sulaiman na maglaban sina WBC at WBA welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. at WBO at eight-division world titlist Manny Pacquiao dahil mawawalan ng interes ang mga apisyonado sa boksing kapag hindi pa natuloy ang $200 milyon megabout sa Mayo 2 sa Las Vegas, Nevada.
Nagkita sina Mayweather at Pacquiao sa Miami kamakailan at maraming napag-usapan hinggil sa kanilang posibleng sagupaan na para kay Sulaiman ay muling mag-aangat sa antas ng boksing sa buong mundo.
“(Not reaching a deal) would even deflate the public interest. What they want is to see the fight, but we’ll see what happens in the coming days. I had great expectations for (Saul) Canelo-(Miguel) Cotto and that already fell through,” sabi ni Sulaiman kay Miguel Rivera ng BoxingScene.com. “I hope they feel and understand the importance of giving the boxing world what they want to see, putting aside egos and personal interests. It’s a fight that would give a big boost to the sport of boxing in the eyes of the entire world and that’s a great benefit to our sport.”
Umaasa naman si Top Rank promoter Bob Arum na ihahayag na anumang araw ang sagupaan nina Pacquiao at Mayweather.
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“According to everybody it seems we are moving towards a fight, you never know,” ani Arum. “I cannot assure you that its gonna happen but certainly with this development in Miami and from what I know about the finalization of papers and everything I have to be optimistic. And I know that everybody that I deal with like Les Moonves of CBS and HBO’s Richard Plepler are all very positive of making this happen.”
“ I think everything is positive and hopefully if everything keeps going well we’ll get it wrapped up by the end of the week,” dagdag ni Arum na duda pa rin sa pakikipagkita ni Mayweather kay Pacquiao. “I’ve seen fighters who get frustrated and the only thing they want to do is to talk to the other guy. I’ve seen that happen plenty of times.”
Pinabulaanan din ng Hall of Fame promoter na siya ang humahadlang kaya hindi matuloy ang sagupaan.
“If anybody blames me for wanting to stop the fight they must be absolutely crazy. Nobody has worked harder than I have to make the fight. Anybody whose involved will tell you that,” dagdag ni Arum. “May 2 that’s the date he (Mayweather) wants and everybody acceded to it. I don’t know whether it makes sense because it’s a Mexican holiday and neither Pacquiao or Mayweather are Mexicans but if that’s what he wants we are willing to accede to that.”
