The inside story of how Mayweather-Pacquiao was saved

LAS VEGAS – Less than two weeks before Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao were to step into the ring to meet each other in a fight that was expected to generate more than $400 million, there was a little problem: There was no contract for the bout between the MGM Grand, where it was to be staged, and the promoters, Mayweather Promotions and Top Rank.

Actually, it was a big problem. Tickets weren't on sale for the fight, and as each hour passed, the likelihood that something dramatically bad would occur increased.

It seemed inconceivable that the fight would be canceled, given the enormous stakes. But this is boxing after all, and nationally televised world championship fights have been canceled only moments before they were to go on air.

That happened in 1978, when Mike Rossman was supposed to defend his title against Victor Galindez at Caesars Palace on ABC's “Wide World of Sports.” But a dispute arose over the judges, so Top Rank's Bob Arum climbed between the ropes, grabbed the ring announcer's microphone and told the stunned crowd that the event was canceled.

"ABC got this huge rating because all of this controversy was going on and it was crazy," Arum said. "[ABC broadcaster Howard] Cosell interviewed this WBA official … and he got a bloody nose because he was so nervous and bled all over Cosell. Sig Rogich was running the commission then, and he said all Nevada judges or there's no fight. So it ended and I got in the ring and I ripped the commission and said the fight was off.

"Monday, I got a call from ABC and they wanted their money they paid for the fight. I said, 'Did you run commercials?' They said, 'Yes.' And I said, 'Did any of the sponsors ask for their money back?' They said, 'No. ' So I lucked out. We just went on with it."

[More Mayweather-Pacquiao: Millionaires scrambling for tickets]

So there is precedence for an agreed-upon fight to take a disastrous last-minute turn. On top of that, the relationships between the sides involved in Mayweather-Pacquiao are worse than those between right-wing Republicans and left-wing Democrats.

Arum has a horrid, at best, relationship with Mayweather chief adviser Al Haymon. And after an incendiary rant last year, Arum's relationship with Richard Sturm, the president of entertainment and sports for MGM Resorts, is all but nonexistent.

The man who literally saved the day – and financially the biggest fight of all time – is also the man who got the sides talking in the first place, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves.

There was a deal point in place already, and Moonves was the one party all sides trusted to mediate the dispute.

"So what happened last week was, quite literally, I would be on the phone with one guy and hear how he viewed it and then I'd talk to the other and hear that he viewed it completely different," Moonves told Yahoo Sports on Thursday. "Ironically, what the issue was, was interpretation of the contract. I'm no lawyer, but here I was talking to one and he'd say, 'This means this, and then I'd get on with the other side and he'd say, 'No, this means that.'

"I've been trying to be the voice of reason, not that either side became totally unreasonable. But basically, I became the voice of compromise. This was similar to some negotiations but different in other ways, so I threw out ideas that might work for both of them. 'What do you need?' and 'What do you need?' We just had to see how far we could push before it went over the edge."

[More Mayweather-Pacquiao: Floyd Sr. says Pacman is just an ‘opponent’]

Not shockingly, Arum disagrees with that analysis. He said much of what Moonves said is correct, but said the contract was black-and-white and said it was never about how either side interpreted it.

Arum alleges that Haymon persuaded Sturm to not permit Top Rank to be a signatory to the contract.

"Our legal position was unassailable," Arum said. "There were legal memos sent back and forth, and Les couldn't rule against us. This was most definitely not about the interpretation of the contract. It's about a guy [Haymon] who bulldozed his way to trying to come up with a side agreement that would prevent the MGM from talking to us and freezing us out of the entire thing, contrary to the term agreement.

"All we wanted was for them to live up to what was in that term sheet. But we knew whose side Les was on, quite obviously" – CBS owns Showtime, which has Mayweather under contract – "but he did a good job."

Moonves said he doesn't believe the controversy will impact pay-per-view sales of the fight, which he said he expects will be "humungous."

Moonves said he expects both fighters to earn extraordinary amounts of money. Mayweather said he believes he'll earn as much as $200 million for the bout.

Moonves also disputed reports that the deal CBS/Showtime signed with Mayweather in 2013 had turned out poorly for the network.

He said the bout with Canelo Alvarez in 2013, which sold 2.2 million pay-per-views and generated a record $150 million in pay-per-view revenue alone, made it a good deal.

"When we signed this deal, we outlined what we would need to make it a good one for us," Moonves said. "We knew in order to make it great we needed the Pacquiao fight. We knew it would be a great deal over the course of these few years if there was a Pacquiao fight at some point in there. But remember: We had a very, very successful fight with Canelo.

"The thought that we are losing or ever were losing money on this deal is, A, completely untrue. And B, a lot of the Floyd money was based upon the success of the events. And C, dealing with Al Haymon, he's a gentleman, he really is. I've had a wonderful relationship with him and he's a man of his word and this has, in all respects, been a beneficial deal for all of us."

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