Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao being negotiated, but what will the terms be?

Richard Schaefer (CEO of golden boy) met with Bob Arum (Top Rank) today over lunch to discuss the terms of a possible fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the early part of 2010.

Although the two fighters have both commented on the terms of the deal and what they want out of it, the terms will actually be worked out by their promoters for the most part.

Given that both fighters can claim to be the biggest draw and money maker, (and so more deserving of the bigger share of the fight purse) the fight is still far from being confirmed. The most interesting part of the negotiations will be what final terms are accepted by both sides.

For this fight to happen, one side or the other needs to either swallow some pride or take a risk, neither of which is something that either team will be in favor of. Neither side is very likely to accept less than 50%, whichever of them is actually more deserving of a bigger share. The risk that could be taken would be for the pair to agree to a lower percentage of the purse each, with the winner taking the remainder. For example perhaps 40% each with the winner taking the other 20%. What the two camps think of this idea isn't known, although Freddie Roach is known to have said that a 50/50 split is the easiest way of doing things.

Another potential stumbling block might be that Mayweather claimed he would never do business with Bob Arum again, and is known to have avoided Top Rank fighters such as Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito in the past. Given his past indiscretions, Arum might be tempted to really hammer Mayweather over the terms of the fight, which is something Mayweather won't like at all.

Most likely, both sides will go back and forth for a few weeks, the Mayweathers will talk a lot of trash in interviews about how he deserved more of the purse, and in the end they will settle for the equal split. Given that Floyd seems to be very picky about his opponents, this could well be his last fight win or lose, and he certainly wants to make as much as he can from it. By the same token though, Pacquiao has other options if this all falls through and Mayweather doesn't.