After Las Vegas County judge Melissa Saragosa allowed Floyd Mayweather, Jr’s incarceration to be postponed until June 1, Mayweather is free to fight on Cinco de Mayo as per his contract obligation.
Finally, he will now fight the man every fan is hoping he would, Manny Pacquiao.
Or not.
Seemingly, Top Rank promoter and Pacquiao handler Bob Arum is having absurd excuses for the fight not to happen.
Here’s an excerpt from Dan Rafael’s article “Blame Arum for no Pac-Floyd fight“,
Arum doesn’t want to match his cash cow, Pacquiao, with somebody he doesn’t control, and he has no control over Mayweather. He once did, but that was years ago, before their nasty breakup. Arum and his people know there is a strong possibility Pacquiao will lose if he ever fights Mayweather.
If Pacquiao did fight Mayweather and lose, he could certainly go on. But at this stage of his career, a loss might send Pacquiao deeper into politics in the Philippines, where he is already a congressman, and that would mean no more Pacquiao fights — or at least only sporadic fights — for Arum to make millions on.
It was just this week that Arum said he would go to the Philippines to meet with Pacquiao and present him with the names of four possible opponents for May or June: Miguel Cotto, Marquez, Lamont Peterson and Timothy Bradley Jr.
Arum figured Mayweather would be in jail and off the table. Now that Mayweather is available and seemingly would like to make the match, Arum suddenly isn’t interested.
He used the lame excuse of the cut Pacquiao suffered against Marquez, saying he might not be ready for May. However, earlier this week, when Arum thought Mayweather would be on ice behind bars, he said there was a good possibility Pacquiao would fight in May.
Moments after Mayweather was granted the continuance, Arum changed his tune.
“We’re fighting in June, one of the four guys,” Arum told me over the phone.
I asked him, now that Mayweather was available, would he at least be part of the conversation when Arum meets with Pacquiao next week?
A perturbed Arum’s response was, “Absolutely not. Nope.”
Come again? You won’t even talk about it with Pacquiao, I asked very politely.
“My mission is to go over to the Philippines and talk about these four guys,” Arum said. “If Manny feels he wants to go in May, he will tell me. I want to make sure Manny’s cuts are healed. We won’t fall under this kind of pressure. June is much more likely for Manny’s fight, not May.”
So May was a real possibility yesterday, but now there’s no way?
“What if they fought and Manny started bleeding on the first punch?” a clearly flustered Arum said. “I don’t know if Manny is available to fight in May. I have no idea. I haven’t talked to him; I haven’t seen him. Seems to me, June is more likely based on what his plastic surgeon said.”
Arum threw out another “reason” (or excuse, as far as I’m concerned) not to try to make Pacquiao-Mayweather for May 5.
“I don’t even know if Mayweather will be licensed [by the Nevada State Athletic Commission] before he serves his time,” Arum said.
In other interviews, Arum even said Arum stated that the May 5th date would not be enough time to promote a Pacquiao vs Mayweather superfight and that the MGM Grand would not be a big enough venue for such an event. Arum said he’s intent to explore the idea of the larger outdoor venue because “having the fight in a 40,000-seat arena rather than a 16,000-seat arena seems like a no-brainer.”
Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer has this to say,
“I don’t think Manny Pacquiao wants to be on that list of names for Mayweather, or Bob doesn’t want him to be on the list. I am sick and tired of Arum’s bulls*it. First Bob said June is when Pacquiao would fight, when Floyd was going to be on May 5. Then, when it looked like Floyd wouldn’t be available in May, he said Pacquiao would be available in May. Now, since they know Mayweather is going to fight in May, suddenly Pacquiao is going to fight in June.
“I’m tired of all those people saying it is Mayweather who doesn’t want the fight. Arum knows who to call. He can pick up the phone and call me and say, ‘Let’s get a fight done with Pacquiao.’ The rest of it is bulls*it. The rest can go drink the Arum and Top Rank Kool-Aid. It is Arum who doesn’t want the fight to happen, end of story.”
Seems like it.
What do you think boxing fan?
Please read related posts below:
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