Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao could happen twice in a year

After decades of waiting for the fight the whole world wants to see, it now seems that Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao could happen twice in one year.

Bob Arum, the PacMan’s promoter, is convinced that the two greatest pound-for-pound boxers on the planet will finally get it on in 2015.

Arum also believes that the carrot of a double-your-money re-match a few months later will clinch at last a deal which has proved more elusive than the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Since a first fight in May is projected to be the richest in ring history at $300 million, the prospect of raising the ante to more than half a billion dollars with a second clash in September next year will surely amount to an offer neither man can refuse.

The removal of two long-standing obstacles which have prevented Mayweather and Pacquiao getting into the same ring together has encouraged Arum to go public in America.

The major pay-per-view TV rivals in the US – HBO who screen Pacquiao’s fights and Showtime who have Mayweather under contract – are understood to be willing to share the massive financial pot via a joint-broadcasting contract.

Arum says: ‘Both networks want this to happen. All signs seem to point to a first fight early next year,’

Then the departure of Richard Schaefer from his post as chief executive at Golden Boy promotions, who organise Mayweather’s promotions, has led to a thaw in the long-running feud between that company and Arum’s Top Rank corporation.

Arum envisages that shift in positions making the two-fight deal negotiable. He says: ‘A second fight in the autumn would provide a different cash split because the winner of the first would claim the higher percentage. As each of them believes he would win, that provides an extra incentive.’

Since the PacMan has agreed already to the Money man’s demands for Olympic-standard drugs testing and a bigger percentage of the purse for a first fight, it would seem that only Mayweather’s concern for his unbeaten record remains to be over-come.

And the biggest hint yet that he is ready to meet that challenge has come with him hinting at ‘a big surprise when I announce my next fight.’

More at The DailyMail Online.