It?s time to put up the big fights.
With these words, Bob Arum yesterday confirmed earlier reports that Top Rank and Golden Boy, fighting it over the promotional rights to Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao, have smoked the peace pipe.
Arum said in a brief phone interview that details of the settlement, which was described as ?universal,? will be announced today in Los Angeles, site of the mediation talks between the former bitter rivals.
?There will be an announcement tomorrow,? he told The STAR.
Lawyers from Top Rank and Golden Boy, owned by Oscar dela Hoya, are drafting the terms of the agreement where the two firms are bound to share the promotional rights over the Filipino superstar.
?When you start drafting these things, it means that things have fallen into place. It?s time to put up the big fights,? said Arum who credited retired Judge Daniel Weinstein for bringing the two parties together.
With ?big fights? Arum meant a string of multi-million-dollar bouts pitting Pacquiao, of Top Rank, against Golden Boy wards Marco Antonio Barrera, Edwin Valero, Joan Guzman and reigning world champion Juan Manuel Marquez.
Humberto Soto, the rising star from Mexico who also comes from the Top Rank stable, is suddenly out of the picture. He was being lined up for an Oct. 6 fight with the Filipino in Vancouver.
A possible Pacquiao-Barrera fight will take place in October either in Las Vegas, probably at Mandalay Bay, or Los Angeles, at the Staples Center. It?ll be a rematch of their 2003 showdown won by the Filipino inside 11 rounds.
Pacquiao should earn around $5 million for this fight, and Barrera, the former WBC super-featherweight champion who has hinted of retirement, can take in no less than $2 million on his purse alone.
?The pieces to the puzzle are being put into place. Now the lawyers on both sides are carefully crafting the peace agreement in which Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya will bury their legal hatchets,? Michael Marley of boxingconfidential.com wrote.
Whether the fight will be carried by HBO or PPV (pay-per-view) remains to be decided.
Despite news that Pacquiao is facing another court battle against his estranged manager Shelly Finkel, the 28-year-old slugger can actually sit back and relax now that he?s out of his promotional woes.
The Top Rank-Golden Boy court case stemmed from the fact that Pacquiao signed promotional contracts with both firms last year.
Pacquiao is in Manila doing a new commercial for San Miguel Beer. The ad also features Chinese martial arts superstar Jet Li who flew into the country the other day.
Pacquiao is scheduled to fly to the US in the next few days for a poker tournament where he was invited as a guest participant.
