A fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao is all anyone in boxing can talk about now that Mayweather beat Shane Mosley and Pacquiao won a congressional seat in the Philippines. Everyone except Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter.
While saying that he is going to do his "darndest to make the fight," Arum has taken a vow of silence when it comes to talking about the upcoming negotiations. That's what he told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday afternoon, a day after returning from the Philippines where he helped Pacquiao in his successful bid for congress.
Here's what we know: The fight would happen on Nov. 13 at either Cowboys Stadium in Dallas or at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Arum said Pacquiao is going to fight on that date with or without Mayweather. We know that Mayweather said there is no fight if Pacquiao doesn't agree to Olympic style drug testing. We also know that Pacquiao, who said he was needle-phobic, didn't want to do blood testing and that killed the last negotiation.
With that background the next thing I want to hear from Arum is: "The deal is done and the fight is on."
If neither side says a word between now and then, I'm fine with that. It is obvious that both sides running back and forth to the media during the first negotiations led to hardened feelings and ultimately killed the deal. Pacquiao filed a lawsuit against Mayweather, his father, Floyd Sr., his uncle and trainer, Roger, saying that they defamed him by saying that he was a steroids user.
Arum said the lawsuit is still pending and is in play. Ostensibly that will be part of the new negotiations.
If they pick up where the old negotiations left off then the drug testing issue is the only sticking point. But a lot has changed since then. Both boxers have fought and won.
Pacquiao dominated Joshua Clottey in a match where Cowboys Stadium was the main attraction. The fight was a letdown. Before the first negotiations for the fight went off track, Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy CEO who works with Mayweather, cancelled a visit to Dallas to tour Cowboys Stadium. Mayweather loves fighting in Vegas and Schaefer has a loyalty to the MGM Grand.
Mayweather is probably going to come at the new negotiations from a different standpoint. He dominated Shane Mosley, who was No. 3 on most people's Pound-for-Pound list and was viewed as his first legitimate opponent at welterweight.
The result of the two fights has given Mayweather the upper hand in the negotiations, and it could re-open the issue
of the financial splits. In the previous deal, the two had agreed to a 50-50 split on the revenue. Mayweather may try to press his status as the sport's top Pay Per View attraction.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2010/05/15/2010-05-15_mayweatherpacquiao_talk_of_boxing_world.html?obref=obinsite#ixzz0uYvdonnV
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