HOT POTATO – TOP RANK GODFATHER Robert “Bob” Arum, a Cum Laude graduate from Harvard Law Schaool and the current driving force behind the sport of boxing, hits eighty today, December 8, and remains optimistic saying “the more-than-thrice-failed Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather negotiation would absolutley have a much better turn out this time around once it is resummed and goes final”.
In an exclusive interview by 1069Woodsy status pre-fight of Cotto-Margarito at the Madison Square Garden in New York, Arum says he has yet decided which among the potential investors he would consider to be included as the prime movers of the purported Manny Pacquiao versus Floyd Mayweather, Jr. boxing event.
“We have not resummed the Pacquiao-Mayweather negotiation yet, though I believe Pacquiao-Mayweather fight will happen because,” for such a potentially biggest fight of the century, “it would be very, very stupid for it not to happen,” says Arum, the founder and CEO of Top Rank, a professional boxing promotion company based in Las Vegas, in another related interview early this week with Examiner.com. Advertisement
Like Arum, Mayweather, Jr. also discloses early this week saying, “I am waiting. There’s no negotiation with Pacquiao camp yet at this time.”
Report in recent weeks has it that Michael Koncz, embattled adviser of Pacquiao, visited Mayweather, Jr. in Las Vegas. But, “it may have been that Team Pacquiao was simply trying to reach out Mayweather, Jr. and talk about the potential fight, which is normally a PRE-NEGOTIATION STAGE”, that which Arum has confirmed. And therefore, no negotaition exists between two camps, as of this writing. As usual, Koncz has no clear word of the ‘alleged’ resumption of the Pacquiao-Mayweather negotiations.
“No specific details,” in fact, “are yet being presented to Floyd Mayweather, Jr. And, clearly, there’s no negotiation taking place yet at this time,” notes one popular member of Team Pacquiao who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“If my friends from Team Pacquiao say that the Pacquiao-Mayweather negotaition is almost a done-deal, they are just fooling (Manny) Pacquiao. They must understand the legal process. Talking about it among themselves with the somebody or anybody not really parties or party to the contract does not mean to say the negotiation has started. They are all ignorant of the legal process and that includes some of the writers.”
“When Mayweather, Jr. says that ‘no negotiation is yet started at this time’, he is right.” He adds.
Meanwhile, Arum, believing the fight itself will generate tremendous sums of money, says: “I believe each fighter can possibly make more than 50 million US dollars from their fight. We will find in the weeks ahead when the negotiation starts.”
Arum, who is in the process of prospecting, declines to disclose the specific names of the investors. He believes making their names public relative to this Pacquiao-Mayweather negotiation would be betrayal of trust and confidentiality.
But, “the investors would be mainly US-based, some of them with partners outside of the American soil.” He exhorts.
“Definitely, the fight would be staged in the US. We will announce the relevant details in due time once we formally meet Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and his party.”
Stay tuned for more!
