Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao Fight News 2015: $250 Million Fight Contract Still Needs Mayweather's Signature
Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. have verbally agreed to a $250 million pot for their 2015 superfight, but Mayweather has yet to sign the contract.
The much-awaited match between undefeated pound-for-pound U.S. champion, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Filipino eight-division fighter, Manny Pacquiao has all but been finalized, and what's missing is Mayweather's John Doe on the dotted line.
The two fighters met last month and agreed on the terms for a welterweight championship bout in May, but the legitimacy of the fight remains questionable with the absence of the American boxer's signature on the contract.
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Touted to be the highest paid match in the history of boxing, with a $250 million purse, it has been an encounter nearly six years in the making after camps of both fighters danced around terms for years.
In late 2014, Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach launched an all-out media campaign challenging Mayweather, with Pacquiao even going so far as to star in a Footlocker commercial taunting the American champ.
Mayweather finally said yes to a match in a sports interview in early January, and the two came face to face at a Miami Heat game that month, and later met at Pacquiao's hotel suite to speak about a possible match on May 2.
Pacquiao had earlier agreed to only 40 percent of the proceeds, with the lion's haul going to Mayweather, just to get him to consent to a fight.
Rumors are circulating that Mayweather may actually announce his official agreement to the fight terms during the NBA All-Star Game at the Madison Square Garden this coming Sunday.
Top Rank promoter, Bob Arum, whom Mayweather has blasted for muddying the waters, has continued to express his doubts over the fight taking place.
"It's the same [baloney]," Arum told the Washington Post last month. "His people negotiate, then they say there's no negotiations, then Mayweather never steps up to the plate. It just solidifies my feeling all along that Mayweather doesn't want to fight Pacquiao. He never did."
