By Rob Smith: World Boxing Council (WBC) president Jose Sulaiman says he’s going to lend a helping hand in trying to put together a mega fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. It’s not quite clear what Sulaiman thinks he can do to get the two fighters to reach an agreement, but it looks he’s going to try and persuade Mayweather Jr. because he holds down the WBC welterweight title and Sulaiman considers him a friend.
Sulaiman told the Manila Standard “Take it for sure I will do my best as this is the top fight the world wants to see. [Mayweather] respects the organization and is a friend. So are some of his representatives.”
I kind of doubt that Sulaiman can do anything to get the two fighters to agree on a fight. Mayweather wants a bigger cut of the financial pie, and with Pacquiao losing to Tim Bradley, looking sloppy, and fatigued, Mayweather doesn’t have any reason to offer Pacquiao a 50-50 deal. To add to that, the Pacquiao-Bradley pay-per-view numbers likely won’t be nearly as good as the Mayweather vs. Miguel Cotto fight, which brought in 1.5 million PPV buys last May.
It’s interesting that the Pacquiao-Bradley PPV numbers still haven’t been announced. It doesn’t matter if they aren’t ever revealed by Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum, it’s still going to be next to impossible for Pacquiao to get a 50-50 deal from Mayweather. Between Pacquiao losing and his fight against Bradley perhaps not bringing in big numbers, that pretty much will keep the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight from being made unless Pacquaio agrees to take a smaller cut. I don’t see that happening.
I think the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight isn’t what it could have been, because a lot of boxing fans have lost interest after two years of waiting for that fight. Also Mayweather and Pacquiao both look like they’re starting to fade in the skills department. Mayweather looks like has a little more left in the tank but not much. It’s hard to see either of these two guys still fighting two years from now. If they are, we’re probably going to see two badly depleted fighters taking losses or worse, winning controversial decisions.