According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather held a private meeting inside of Pacquiao’s hotel suite on Tuesday night in Miami.
They met inside Pacquiao’s hotel suite and “it was very pleasant and very encouraging, and we give Floyd credit for coming over,” Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz, who was present at the meeting, told ESPN.com on Wednesday. “That’s the first time they ever sat eye to eye. I’ve met Floyd many times, but he and Manny had never had a chance to meet. They talked at halftime, but this was a longer, more serious meeting. You could tell by their body language that this was very positive. It was for a good hour or more.
“It was a business meeting, but it wasn’t a tense business meeting. I think that’s because they both have mutual respect for each other. We’ll determine what will happen over the next couple of days.”
“I told Floyd I would call [Pacquiao promoter] Bob [Arum of Top Rank] in the morning, and I did that and discussed them with Bob, and he assured us they have been worked out. I took care of it,” Koncz said. “I said to Floyd, and Manny agreed, that if those are the only two broadcasting issues, we would take care of them.”
Koncz said Pacquiao and Mayweather also discussed other issues but that the broadcasting items were “the majority of the discussion. Floyd said, ‘I want the fight to happen,’ and Manny said he does, too. If the fighters both want the fight to happen, who can stop it? They both said they want it to happen, and we’re still looking to make it happen on May 2.
“I think people are just tired of all of this. Me and Manny, and maybe Floyd, we’re tired of the fans and everybody, everywhere we go continually asking us when the fight will happen. Boxing needs this fight to happen, and it needs to happen in May.”
“I don’t want to go on a worldwide tour. We don’t think it’s necessary,” he said. “Look, we could have stopped in seven cities and not gotten the kind of publicity we got from Manny and Floyd talking at halftime of the basketball game.
“I think we could do one city, perhaps two, New York and Los Angeles, and this thing will go viral. It will sell itself. We don’t need to go spending money on private jets to go to a lot of cities. Those tours are expensive. The money could go to the fighters instead. People want this fight and have wanted it for so long. I would have liked to see it happen three or four or five years ago, but hopefully we can get it done now. It will be the biggest fight in history.”
