MANILA, Philippines – Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao have agreed to face each other in September, a news website reported Thursday.
Referencing a video posted on the YouTube boxing channel 78Sports TV, Latino Post reports that the fight is finally a done deal.
The video commentary, which is about 15-minute long, features the anchor quoting a source who confirmed that the fight is happening this year. The source is reportedly the same person who revealed information about Mayweather’s fights with Robert Guerrero and Saul Alvarez even before the bouts were officially announced.
"Great news in the world of boxing. He [the source] is telling me that Floyd and Manny Pacquiao will be fighting in 2014 guaranteed and it's already done," the 78Sports anchor said.
The development comes amid various reports about Mayweather’s purported disinterest in a fight with Pacquiao, which most observers believe could break existing pay-per-view records and end up as the richest bout ever.
Mayweather even came up with a series of online posts mocking Pacquiao and hinting that a megabuck duel between them is far from happening. Meanwhile, Pacquiao is reportedly flying to the US to personally talk to Mayweather about a fight.
But the 78Sports anchor, again quoting his source, insists everything is just for show.
"Everything else that you will see will be just theatrics from here on out. But the fight is already done," he added.
Pacquiao and Mayweather have scheduled their ring return in April and May, respectively, although no opponents have been named yet. The undefeated American is reportedly eyeing British Amir Khan while Pacquiao has Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley and Ruslan Provodnikov in his radar.
Those fights will logically end up as preludes to a highly anticipated Mayweather-Pacquiao showdown.
It can be recalled that both camps tried to arrange the duel about a couple of years ago, with Mayweather insisting on an Olympic-style blood testing and at one point offering Pacquiao a flat fee of $40 million to face him.
The fight never came to fruition. Have the tides indeed changed? The world is still waiting.
(http://thumbnails101.imagebam.com/29862/76cf6f298613009.jpg) (http://www.imagebam.com/image/76cf6f298613009)