WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A contract for the much-anticipated March 13 fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. could be in place by next week, promoter Bob Arum said yesterday.
“I went through everything and resolved the issues with Manny,” Arum told Reuters in a telephone interview from the Philippines. “Now I have to meet with the Mayweather people and finalise the deal. That’s where we’re at and I’m very, very hopeful things will get done.” Arum said he was optimistic a deal could be in place by “sometime early next week”.
Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 knockouts), 30, is coming off a 12th-round technical knockout of Miguel Cotto on Nov. 14 in Las Vegas. The last fight for Mayweather (40-0-0, 25 KOs), a 32-year-old American, was a unanimous decision over Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez on Sept. 19 in Las Vegas.
