Mayweather close to agreement with Pacquiao
The long-awaited showdown between world welterweight champions Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao is close to being agreed on, according to one of the American fighter's confidants.
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A report in the Guardian claims Sam Watson, who is close to Mayweather's advisor Al Haymen, said yesterday that 'Money's' camp are going over the details. The news comes a day after Pacquiao agreed terms for a May 2 showdown.
"They're putting it together now," Watson is quoted as saying. "They're going to do a Showtime-HBO [joint pay-per-view] like they did last time with Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson.
"They're working on the monies now and everything they've got to work on to make it happen. I can't wait. It's going to be huge."
CBS and Showtime, which Mayweather is contracted to, and broadcaster Time Warner/HBO, which Pacquiao is contracted to, would more than likely have to agree a deal for a joint pay-per-view broadcast.
They have done it in a similar situation before; in 2002, they agreed to a deal to jointly broadcast a fight between HBO's then-heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and Showtime's Mike Tyson. With both fighters nearing the end of their careers, it became the highest-grossing fight in the history of boxing at that time.
Mayweather has two fights remaining on the six-fight contract that CBS and Showtime signed him to in early 2013, while it has been previously reported that Pacquiao held behind-the-scene talks with his promoter Top Rank and Leslie Moonves, the head of CBS.
Mayweather-Pacquiao is a fight boxing fans have craved since 2009 but one that never has been agreed to due to various unsuccessful negotiations, with both camps initially holding disagreements over the drug-testing protocol.
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Pacquiao has publicly chased what would be boxing's richest clash on numerous occasions and, should it be agreed, it would mean bad news for Britain's Amir Khan, who has targeted bouts with both fighters.
